Former Himachal Pradesh BJP president Khimi Ram Sharma has joined the Congress party in the presence of Rajeev Shukla, party in-charge for the state, in Delhi, barely four months ahead of the Assembly elections.

    Uttarakhand on  july 12 became the first state in the country to initiate process of implementing the Centre's New Education Policy, with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurating 'Bal Vatikas' at anganwadi kendras across the state to strengthen the pre-primary education system.

The 'Bal Vatikas' will function at 4,457 anganwadi kendras in the state and will be equivalent to the nursery classes at a private school.

Speaking on the occasion, Dhami said the implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) marks the beginning of culture-based education in the country focusing on the overall personality development of students.

Amid a row over the national emblem installed atop the new Parliament building in Delhi, its sculptor Sunil Deore said the sculpture should be seen from a distance and from the same angle as the original version at Sarnath is viewed.

The controversy over the national emblem atop the new Parliament building erupted with the opposition accusing the government of giving a "ferocious" look to the sculpture and insulting the symbol, while the BJP dismissed it as yet another "conspiracy" to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi had on july 11 unveiled the cast of the national emblem on top of the new Parliament building.

The new statue is an adaptation of an ancient sculpture 'Lion Capital of Ashoka' at Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, dating back to 250 BC.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended his lead in the UK prime ministerial race on July 13

with the highest number of votes at 88 in the first round of voting by Conservative Party MPs, which narrowed down the race from eight to six candidates on the shortlist.

Fellow Indian-origin candidate, Attorney General Suella Braverman, features last on the latest tally with 32 votes, behind Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt (67 votes), Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (50 votes), former minister Kemi Badenoch (40 votes) and backbencher Tom Tugendhat (37 votes).

Newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt are out of the race after not being able to attract the requisite votes of at least 30 MPs, at 25 and 18 backers respectively.

While Sunak, 42, has maintained a steady lead among his Tory parliamentary colleagues since he declared his intention to run for party leadership last week, the Conservative Party membership base which will have the final say seems to be building momentum behind Penny Mordaunt.

Sunak, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy's son-in-law, told the BBC he feels “great” about the result of the first round of voting.

At this early stage of the contest, the race seems to be narrowing down into a three-way Sunak, Mordaunt and Liz Truss clash, but the field is still seen as wide open.

The next round of voting by the 358 Conservative members of Parliament to pick their favourites left on the ballot paper is scheduled for july 14, when the field of candidates will be narrowed down even further to a shorter list of finalists.

Tashi Choden will not only be the first contestant to represent Bhutan at the Miss Universe competition -- she is also the Himalayan country's only openly gay public figure.

The remote country is famed for its philosophy of "Gross National Happiness", in which it prioritises citizens' well-being on par with economic growth. But up until February 2021, gay sex was defined in the penal code as "sexual conduct against the laws of nature", and branded illegal in the Buddhist country.

That makes Choden's crowning last month as Miss Bhutan 2022 a "huge deal" for the country of almost 800,000 people and its LGBTQ community, she said. "I'm not only speaking for the Bhutanese community but I'm speaking for the minority community on a platform like the Miss Universe pageant," she told ."I can be their voice."

The India-China trade is on course to cross USD 100 billion for the second consecutive year as it has gone up to USD 67.08 billion in the first half of this year amid a big surge of Chinese exports.

China's exports to India have gone up to USD 57.51 billion, up by 34.5 per cent last year while Indian exports to China fell to USD 9.57 billion, a decline of 35.3 per cent compared to last year, according to the trade data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The trade deficit at the half-year mark stood at USD 47.94 billion.

Last year, the India-China bilateral trade hit a record high of over USD 125 billion crossing the USD 100 billion mark in a year when the relations touched a new low due to standoff by the militaries in Eastern Ladakh.

China's exports to India last year went up by 46.2 per cent to USD 97.52 billion while India's exports to China grew by 34.2 per cent to USD 28.14 billion.

The trade deficit for India grew by USD 69.38 billion in 2021.

In May, China insisted that it is still India's biggest trade partner in 2021-22 as per its figures, referring to reports that the US has unseated it to take the top slot and attributed the "disparity" to different methods of calculating the trade volume by New Delhi and Beijing.

According to the statistics of Chinese competent authorities, bilateral trade volume between China and India stood at USD 125.

66 billion in 2021," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing when asked about reports of the US overtaking China to become the largest trade partner of India in 2021-22.

Overall, China's foreign trade of goods jumped 9.4 per cent year-on-year to 19.8 trillion yuan (about USD 2.94 trillion) during the first half of the year, according to GAC data.

IT services company Infosys on july 13 has  said that it will acquire Denmark-headquartered BASE life science for 110 million euros. 

The acquisition of BASE is expected to close during the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The acquisition amount includes management incentives, bonuses and retention.

Founded in 2007, BASE, with nearly 200 Life Science domain experts, offers business consulting and technology services, helping global life sciences companies realise business value from cloud-first digital platforms and data to speed-up clinical trials and scale drug development.

BASE has a strong focus on Data & AI, and the ability to bridge and integrate business logic and technology, driving insights for better health outcomes

There is only a 20-30 per cent likelihood of a global recession and chances of prolonged stagflation in the economy seem more, according to State Bank of India research report Ecowrap's latest edition, which has projected that India's inflation rate is expected to come closer to 5 per cent by March 2023.

In India, retail inflation has been over the Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance band of 6 per cent for the sixth consecutive month in a row in June. Retail inflation came in at 7.01 per cent in June.

The moderation in inflation in the past two months has been possible because of the various steps taken by the government, including the cut in taxes on petrol, and diesel, restrictions imposed on food exports, and cut in cement prices amid a global meltdown in commodity prices.

Globally too, high inflation has been a worrying factor due to both demand and supply side concerns.

With several goods and services costing more from July 18 with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council approving an increase in rates and withdrawing tax exemptions on some, the additional impact of GST rates increase on retail inflation will be in the range of 15-20 basis points only, it said.