Visually challenged people will now have easier access to the vast repository of resources in the parliament library which is now equipped with necessary assistive technologies .

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla inaugurated special facilities that provide visually challenged people access to more than 1.7 million publications and resources in the library. Birla took the initiative after he found that visually impaired people were facing difficulty in accessing the library for want of digital visual aids.

After consultations with institutes and domain experts, the Lok Sabha Secretariat procured necessary hardware and software to assist such people to access library resources.

Visually challenged people will be able to listen to the contents of the screen in Indian accented voices, read, translate, digitise, take audio output for any printed books, and listen to physical books .

Persons with partial blindness who can operate computers will be able to magnify the contents of the screen through magnifiers, while those having hearing impairment can have access to screen contents through Braille devices.

He said the parliament library has also subscribed to Sugamaya Pustakalaya, India's largest online library of books with access to more than six lakh book titles. These books can now be accessed by fully visually challenged people using a daisy player. 

The Narendra Modi government’s ambitious project to reintroduce the cheetah in the wilds of India – 70 years after the fastest moving animal on earth officially became extinct in the country – has suffered the third jolt in less than 45 days.

An adult South African female cheetah, re-named Daksha last month, died at her enclosure at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) after sustaining grievous injuries in a “violent interaction” with two male South African cheetahs Vayu and Agni. 

With this, the KNP in Sheopur district is now left with 17 semi-adult and adult Namibian and South African cheetahs and three cubs born to one of the female Namibian cheetahs on March 29.

Normal life was affected in the Arunachal Pradesh capital on  May 10 , following a 72 hour bandh call given by a few individuals and groups, in protest against the paper leak scam of the state public service commission.

All business establishments including, banks and educational institutions remained closed while attendance in government offices was thin.

All private and public transport remained off the road except police and magistrate vehicles on duty.

The Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) fiasco had created uproar in the state and massive agitations were held against it.

Subsequently, CBI took over the probe and arrested more than 50 people in the case.

So far 54 individuals, including 41 government officers, have been arrested in connection with the APPSC paper leak case.

Of the 41 government officials found to be involved in the malpractices 19 employees, whose services were yet to be confirmed, were terminated.

Disciplinary actions were initiated against 22 regular employees.

The paper leak scam came to light when Gyamar Padang, a candidate for the Assistant Engineer (Civil) exam conducted by the APPSC, had lodged a complaint at the Itanagar police station on August 29, 2022, claiming that the question papers of examinations held on August 26 and 27 were leaked.

Padang, the whistle-blower in the question paper leak scandal, died at a hospital in Hyderabad on May 3 after a prolonged illness.

The state government handed over the case to CBI and also to the Enforcement Directorate to probe it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has addressed his country's Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square, claiming that “a real war” has been unleashed against Russia — a reference to the war in Ukraine that the Kremlin portrays as being a proxy conflict with the West.

He welcomed soldiers fighting in Ukraine who were present at the parade.

Russia unleashed a barrage of cruise missiles on Ukraine overnight into May 9 , hours before the start of Moscow's annual commemorations celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, which this year is taking place amid tight security measures.

The Kremlin's forces launched 25 missiles overnight in a wave of attacks across Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that air defense had successfully destroyed 23 of them.

Moscow is expected to project a show of force during its flagship parade on Red Square, with top-notch military equipment rumbling through it and leaders of ex-Soviet nations standing beside President Vladimir Putin.

Initially, only one of them — Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov — was expected to attend, but at the last minute, officials confirmed that leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were heading to Moscow as well.

The Delhi bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on  May 10 admitted Go Airlines India ltd’s (Go First) plea for voluntary insolvency and for initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) proceedings.

NCLT has granted Go First protection under moratorium from recovery by lessors and lenders. The NCLT has appointed Abhilash Lal, backed by Alvarez and Marsel, as the interim resolution professional (IRP) to run the airline.

The tribunal directed the company's suspended board of directors to cooperate with Lal and to ensure there are no layoffs. The management was also asked to deposit  Rs 5 crores with the IRP to meet immediate expenses.

Go First CEO Kaushik Khona called NCLT's order a historic judgment in terms of pace of proceedings. He added that it will ensure that the airline remains viable as the airline still have 27 aircraft in operation. 

Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn has bought a huge tract of land on the outskirts of Indian tech hub Bengaluru, the key Apple supplier said in a filing as it looks to diversify production away from China.

Also known by its official name, Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn is the world's biggest contract electronics manufacturer and a principal assembler of Apple iPhones.

Both companies are seeking to shift manufacturing away from China after strict Covid policies, a bout of industrial unrest and ongoing diplomatic tensions with the United States hurt production.

The 1.2 million-square-metre (13 million-square-foot) acquisition in Devanahalli, near the airport for Bengaluru, was announced in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

It said that subsidiary Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development was paying three billion rupees ($37 million) for the site, the size of more than 50 Manhattan city blocks.

Another Foxconn unit was acquiring land use rights to a 480,000-square-metre site in Vietnam's Nghe An province, it added.

Foxconn chairman Young Liu visited the state then and also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has urged foreign firms to manufacture goods in the South Asian nation.

Foxconn has manufactured Apple handsets in India since 2019 at its plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The company is expected to break ground on a new facility in Telangana state.

Two other Taiwanese suppliers, Wistron and Pegatron, also manufacture and assemble Apple devices in India.

Social networking firm LinkedIn announced that it will close down its last service available in China, citing "fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate".

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn was one of the few US technology companies to successfully operate a social media site in China, where the internet is heavily regulated and censored.

The company had introduced a unique domestic version of the career networking platform operated locally in order to comply.

In 2021, new sign-ups for the LinkedIn app in mainland China were suspended by the firm, which referenced a "significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China".

Microsoft then replaced it with a simplified version called InCareer, which allowed local professionals to continue to find and apply for jobs as well as stay connected with their network.

Most US internet giants -- including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube -- have long been blocked in China as they fail to comply with strict and often murky regulations.

LinkedIn has come under fire in recent years for removing the accounts of dissidents and erasing content on sensitive issues.

The government will launch a drive to ensure people get their unclaimed deposits, shares and dividend, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said after the 27th Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting, headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

He said the Union Budget 2023-24 had announced that the system would be put in place and there will be a drive for that. 

Nearly Rs 35,000 crore are lying as a pool of unclaimed deposits as of February 2023 with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). These funds were transferred by public sector banks (PSBs) in respect of deposits, which have not been operated for 10 years or more.

These unclaimed deposits belong to 10.24 crore accounts transferred to the RBI as of the end of February 2023. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had last month said a centralised portal would be ready in three to four months wherein depositors and beneficiaries can access details of unclaimed deposits across various banks.

FSDC met, for the first time, after budget 2023-24 was announced.