A new research in the U.K. has found that Britons don't want higher levels of immigration from India and many other non-EU countries even if it comes at the price of not securing a free trade agreement.
Only higher levels of immigration from the U.S., Canada and Australia would be tolerated in exchange for trade arrangements, polling carried out on behalf of the Henry Jackson Society, a neo-Conservative think tank, found.
The research points to one of the tensions at the heart of Brexit: while the British government pushes its vision of a global Britain, reaching out beyond Europe, with public opinion stacked against immigration from beyond the EU as well as from within it, the government could struggle to reach deals to boost trade with these nations.
Diplomacy to Ease India-Pakistan Tensions
China has stepped up its diplomacy to ease tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama attack by sending its special envoy to Islamabad.
Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou is in Islamabad to establish an enabling atmosphere that would help Pakistan to cooperate with other parties.
Mr. Lu said Mr. Kong's mission is to promote dialogue between India and Pakistan by persuading both sides to exercise flexibility.
India has made it plain that it would start a dialogue only if Pakistan takes visible and verifiable steps to eliminate terrorism that targets India from its soil.
North Korea Restoring Facilities at Rocket Site
According to foreign experts, North Korea is restoring facilities at a long-range rocket launch site that it dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.
The finding follows a nuclear summit last week between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service provided the assessment about the North's Tongchang-ri launch site to lawmakers during a private briefing.
Grasim Industries signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% equity shareholding of Soktas India Private Limited (SIPL) from its promoters for an enterprise value of Rs. 165 crore, subject to net debt and working capital adjustments as of the closing date.
SIPL is into manufacturing and distribution of premium cotton fabrics with a manufacturing facility at Kolhapur in Maharashtra.
Sterlite Plant to Reopen
As per reports, Vedanta Ltd. legal processes are in progress through state courts for reopening the Sterlite Copper plant in Tuticorin.
The Tamil Nadu government had, in May 2018, ordered the State pollution control board to seal and permanently close the mining group's copper plant following violent protests over pollution concerns.
Wind Energy Capacity Expansion to Slow
According to a report by Crisil, capacity addition in the wind energy sector will slow down over fiscal 2019 to 2023, with only 14-16 GW being added due to a decline in bid responses and profitability of original equipment manufacturers.
Crisil Research expects capacity addition to grow slowly over the next five years, driven by the allotment of central transmission utility's (CTU) grid connected capacities.
The shift to a competitive bidding mechanism has slowed industry growth due to a significant fall in tariffs, triggering a decline in both bid response and profitability for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Tamil Nadu's Arokia Rajiv and Kerala's V. K. Vismaya won the men's and women's 200 m in the fourth and final Indian Grand Prix athletics at Panchkula, Chandigarh.
Both Rajiv and Vismaya were adjudged as the best athletes of the Panchkula meet.
Meanwhile, Karnataka's K.S. Jeevan won the men's 400 m while M.R. Poovamma clocked her season's best while taking the women's quartermile. Haryana's Manjit Chahal, the Asian Games 800m champion, won the men's 1500 m while former Asian champion Inderjeet Singh won the shot put title.
All England Championship
P. V. Sindhu was knocked out of the All England Championship by Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the women's singles opening round.
In men's singles, 2017 Singapore Open champion B. Sai Praneeth defeated H. S. Prannoy.
Sung Ji will face Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi in the second round.
Toughest One-day Event on Planet
Retired Indian Army Colonel Arun Malik successfully completed the Ironman triathlon event, held in West Asia nation Oman. Malik finished Ironman 70.3 Oman in 5 hours 28 minutes.
The international race, also known to be the #Toughest single day event on the planet comprised 1.9 km of swimming followed by 90 km cycling and 21.1 km run making a total distance of 112.5 km.
IronMan, organized by World Triathlon Corporation, is one of the world's toughest one-day sporting events.
The inaugural edition of Ironman race in India is expected to be held in Goa in October 2019. Organisers have already recieved 1,000 registrations.
The National People's Party (NPP), which aims to be the alternative to the Congress and ally BJP in the northeast, launched its unit in Assam with a plan to contest all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
The launch coincided with the completion of a year of the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government in Meghalaya, where the BJP is a minor partner.
Assam is the sixth north-eastern State where the NPP has made an entry. The Assam unit is headed by retired IPS officer Dilip Kumar Bora.
Indore Cleanest City for Third Year
In the latest Cleanliness Survey, Indore was adjudged India's cleanest city for the third year in a row. The second and third positions were bagged by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysuru in Karnataka.
The Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi. While the New Delhi Municipal Council was given the 'Cleanest Small City' award, Uttarakhand's Gauchar bagged the 'Best Ganga Town'. The 'Cleanest Big City' award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the 'Fastest Moving Big City'.
Top-ranked cities received a statue of Mahatma Gandhi as a memento for their work towards cleanliness. Swachh Survekshan covered all urban local bodies in the country, making it the largest such cleanliness survey in the world.
Congress's Foreign Policy Stance
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met 30 envoys and senior diplomats of G20 nations and neighbouring countries to outline their party's foreign policy stance.
A Pakistani representative was not invited to the interaction, seen as part of the Congress party's outreach to key players in the diplomatic community ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress president made it clear to the diplomats that his party is united and committed to carry forward the fight against terror.
Besides G20 members, envoys and senior diplomats of neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka and key Asian nations such as South Korea attended the meet, where the Congress leadership also shared its economic and political vision.
National space agency ISRO and its French counterpart CNES sealed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in the country in May.
The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track movement of ships globally – and in particular those moving in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands.
The agreement comes a year after the broad collaboration plan the two governments initiated during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit in March 2018.
A charity founded by Britain's Prince Charles announced a new partnership with British Telecom (BT) to launch a three-year programme to use digital technology to help improve education and life skills for adolescent girls in India.
British Asian Trust, founded by the royal in 2007 to fight poverty in South Asia, said the pact with one of the UK's leading telecom companies will explore the different ways technology can be used to break down social barriers and help enhance employability, health choices and autonomy for the target group of largely young girls in India.
The programme will work in and around BT's India operations in Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, with the aim to help improve the education opportunities, health and skills of around 500,000 young people.
Google Launches App 'Bolo'
Google launched the app 'Bolo' to help primary grade children improve their Hindi and English learning skills. The app is aimed at bridging learning gap in education and is available on Google play store in India.
Bolo is designed as a reading-tutor app that helps students improve their reading -- anytime, anywhere.
The app uses Google's speech recognition and text to speech technology. It comes with a built-in fun and helpful reading buddy, "Diya" that encourages, helps, aids and corrects the child, as he reads aloud.
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