Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
The appointment, expected shortly, will come in the backdrop of tax expert Parthasarathy Shome recently resigning from the post of adviser to Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
"My aim is to make Maharashtra the world's big financial powerhouse and to make Mumbai a global fintech capital," he said.
As Donald Trump registered a historic comeback in the US presidential election, many former Indian diplomats on Wednesday concurred that the India-US ties will "continue to grow" from strength to strength, even as some of them cautioned that Trump is "highly unpredictable" and New Delhi will have to "wait and watch" to see what position he adopts going forward.
Regulators must learn from past mistakes and act swiftly to prevent Big Tech from monopolising the AI ecosystem, argue Payal Malik and Nikita Jain.
Using mantras from the Bhagavad Gita, Vatsal Ramaiya explains how you can conquer your home loan debt and unlock a world of financial freedom and peace of mind.
Instead of repeating the same study patterns, focus on creating a more efficient schedule that prioritises building a strong foundation in maths, physics and chemistry, advises Rohit Gupta, COO, College Vidya.
State-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has committed Rs 600 crore for its digital transformation journey, Sunder Krishnan, chief risk officer said on Wednesday. The insurance giant is also aiming to become completely "paperless" in two years. "We have hired a large system integrator for more than Rs 400 crore, a consultant for digital transformation for Rs 100 crore, and Rs 100 crore for agency transformation.
Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal is set to attend a two-day meeting from October 23 at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, that would focus on finding solutions and giving the 'necessary political push' for at least some crucial global trade issues. Next week's meeting comes ahead of the WTO's 13th ministerial conference (MC13), scheduled in Abu Dhabi in February 2024. It will see participation of senior government officials from all WTO member nations.
'This is what happens to a party when it gets trapped in the vicious circle of nepotism and dynastic politics'
In a significant development, India is believed to have placed a funding request of around $55 million in its first call with the Pandemic Fund of the World Bank, sources said. The fund has been set up to finance critical investments in a bid to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. It was created in the aftermath of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
To boost domestic manufacturing under the Make in India initiative and reduce dependency on imports, the government is expected to announce in the Budget an increase in the minimum local content requirement for public procurement, with certain sectors being granted exceptions. Currently, firms producing goods, services, or works with at least 50 per cent local content are classified as Class-I local suppliers and are preferred the most in government procurement.
Modi said today "we all have reached an important and historic partnership".
Czech Republic's Krystyna Pyszkova won the 71st Miss World beauty pageant.
'The more educated a young person is, the higher the chances of him or her remaining unemployed.'
State school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi assured that action will be taken against the speaker for his controversial speech at a government school in Chennai.
It is what you may call charity with benefit.
"There was complete clarity in my mind that taking the public in Jammu and Kashmir into confidence was absolutely essential for the execution of the decision," Prime Minister Narendra Modi says about his government's decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
'Our border guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation.'
I suggest we build a Vigyan Mandir (Temple of Science) with the ambience of a place of worship, so that it becomes a destination for pilgrims. We should embed on its walls bronze plaques describing each scientist mentioned here along with about a dozen of our ancient mathematicians, recommends Professor Kalyan Singhal, historian of science and technology.
India decisively withstood global headwinds in 2023 and is likely to remain as the world's fastest-growing major economy on the back of growing demand, moderate inflation, stable interest rate regime and robust foreign exchange reserves. Despite widespread pessimism witnessed among the developed nations and the worsening geopolitical situation, India recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) expansion of 6.1 per cent in the March quarter. The growth moved up to 7.8 per cent in the June quarter and was 7.6 per cent in the September quarter. For the first six months of this fiscal, the growth was 7.7 per cent.
The Indian government has sent Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri to represent India at the event.
As India's stock rises, the resolution of the border row may become even more difficult, warn Harsh V Pant and Kalpit Mankikar.
As expected, there have been no major announcements in the Interim Budget.
'With all outlets of public expression virtually choked for the last five years, suppressed anger and frustration is looking for an opening via the ballot box.' 'There is no escape from the inevitability of the 'Engineer Rashid' factor surfacing in a big enough way to upset everyone's applecart,' alerts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Monday held that watching and downloading child pornography are offences under the POCSO Act and the information technology law.
Addressing a gathering of priests and devotees, he said the redevelopment of centres of faith in India shows the country's growing pride in its ancient saints and philosophers like Adi Guru Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda.
'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
Kirsten said it is not improbable if India can figure a way to make things right in the knockout games.
'There will be 200 ITIs developed as hubs, while 800 will be developed as spoke, connected with five National Skill Training Institutes.'
'Modi knows the people here are opposed to this project, but he is using the might of government to push this port down our throats.'
Manoj Tiwary and Munaf Patel extended wishes to former India captain Sourav Ganguly on his 52nd birthday.
The top three Indian IT firms -- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro -- collectively trained over 775,000 employees in generative AI (GenAI) capability by the end of 2023-24, according to an analysis of GenAI-trained workforce of leading companies in India in this sector. This number is significantly higher that the projection made by the IT industry body Nasscom in its Strategic Review of 2023, released in February this year. It said in 2023-2024, over 650,000 employees across the IT industry received training in Gen AI skills.
'He is definitely much more mature and he knows the value of his place in the Indian team, 2-3 years of not being there.' 'He will now look to take care of his body much more. He has developed from a youngster to a responsible person now.' 'He knows what he needs to do, to succeed at the highest level.'
'Ratan had the quality that JRD and Russi Mody had -- they could walk with kings and never lose the common touch.'
Air India on Thursday unveiled a new brand identity and aircraft livery as the airline moves ahead with its transformation plan since being taken over by Tata Group more than one-and-a-half years ago. The new look re-imagines the iconic Indian window shape, historically used by Air India, into a gold window frame that becomes central to the new brand design system. It symbolises a 'Window of Possibilities', according to a release.
The Sentiment Analyser features a user-friendly interface with sliders for each political party, ranging from -7 to +7, to represent negative to positive shifts in public sentiment.
The Nyoma airfield, which will be one of the world's highest, will sharpen the IAF's capability along the northern border.
The implementation of this toll collection system, which will eventually eradicate toll booths, necessitates the fitting of an on-board unit (OBU) in every vehicle that can track a vehicle's location in real time.
The prime minister will be part of the launch of several development initiatives on his birthday.
