Renowned Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas will be honoured with the prestigious Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award this year at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) the held in Goa.

This year's film festival will be graced by the celebrated actor, accompanied by his spouse, eminent actress and philanthropist Catherine Zeta Jones and their son and actor, Dylan Douglas. 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh conducted the Fifth Annual Defence Dialogue with French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu in Paris, before concluding his two-nation Europe tour to Italy and France.

The two ministers discussed a wide range of topics from the assessment of regional situations to the ongoing military-to-military engagements, with a focus on enhancing defence industrial cooperation.

They also discussed potential collaboration in niche domains such as space, cyber and Artificial Intelligence

During the first leg of his two-nation tour, Rajnath Singh held talks with Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in Rome. An agreement on cooperation in the field of defence was signed after the talks to promote bilateral collaboration in varied defence domains, such as security and defence policy, R&D, education in military field, maritime domain awareness, sharing of defence information and industrial cooperation, including co-development, co-production & setting up of joint ventures. He also met with CEOs and other top leaders of Italian defence companies in Rome, as part of his visit.

India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index-2023 with the country reporting the highest child wasting (a child who is too thin for his or her height) rate at 18.7 per cent.

India ranked 107th out of 121 countries in 2022.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.

India's neighbouring countries Pakistan (102th), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th) and Sri Lanka (60th) have fared better than it in the index.

South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara are the world regions with the highest hunger levels, with a GHI score of 27 each, indicating serious hunger.

According to the index, the rate of undernourishment in India stood at 16.6 per cent and under-five mortality at 3.1 per cent. The report also said that the prevalence of anaemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years stood at 58.1 per cent.

Nobel laureate Louise Glück, a poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, philosophical reveries, bittersweet memories and humorous asides into indelible portraits of a fallen and heartrending world, has died at 80.

Glück’s death was confirmed  by Jonathan Galassi, her editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She died of cancer at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to her publisher. A former student of Glück’s, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham, said that the author had only recently been diagnosed.

Air India Express, which is in the process of merging AIX Connect with itself, plans to induct 50 new B737 MAX planes in the next 15 months as the Tata Group bolsters its aviation business.

Besides, the combined entity of Air India Express, also the country's first international budget carrier, and AIX Connect, formerly known as AirAsia India, will be launching its new brand on October 18.

In a message to staff this week, Air India Express and AIX Connect Managing Director Aloke Singh said key milestones, including migration to a common reservations and check-in system, have been achieved in terms of integration of the two carriers.

Currently, the combined entity has a fleet of 56 aircraft, including 26 B737, 2 B737 MAX, 5 A320 neo and 23 A320.

Meanwhile, Tata Group is in the process of consolidating its airline business.

Apart from Air India Express-AIX Connect integration, Air India is merging Vistara with itself.

Vistara is a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, in which the former holds a 51 per cent stake.

India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world and air traffic is also on the rise.

The country’s exports declined by 2.6% in September to $34.5 billion in September as compared to the same month in the previous year. This is the fifth month in FY24 when exports registered a decrease year-on-year (YoY) led by  affected sectors such as gems and jewellery, petroleum and chemicals, among others. Dip in imports led to trade deficit narrowing down by 31%, five month-low of $19.4 billion in Sep. During April-Sep of FY24, exports contracted by 8.77% to $211.4 billion and imports fell by 12.23% to $ 326.98 billion.

Petroleum imports dipped 20.3% to $14 billion in September, while its exports fell by 10.6% to $6.49 billion. Gems and jewellery exports saw a fall of over 16% to $3.18 billion in September.

Notwithstanding the decline in trade, certain sectors including non-petroleum and non-gems/jewelry exports, engineering goods, marine products, electronic goods, ceramic products, drugs/pharma, and iron ore showed positive growth. Agricultural exports including spices, fruits and vegetables, oil seeds and coffee also registered growth during April-September 2023.

After a reconciliation process with Customs, revised data showed India’s exports for August 2023 estimated to be higher at $38.4 billion, indicating a growth of 3.88% as against the previous year. This revision comes after the initial announcement of a 6.8% fall in exports last month. 

Kylian Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored twice to help France and Portugal secure a spot at next year's European Championship with a perfect record in qualifying, with Belgium also clinching a berth in Germany on Oct 13 .

The three European powerhouses all needed a win to qualify for the tournament and their star strikers made sure they got them.

Jorge Vilda, who led Spain to the Women's World Cup title before being fired weeks later, will take over as coach of Morocco's women's national team.

Vilda was fired as part of the changes at the Spanish federation following the crisis prompted by former president Luis Rubiales kissing a player on the lips during the World Cup awards ceremony in August.

Vilda was later summoned by a Spanish judge as part of the investigation into Rubiales' kiss on player Jenni Hermoso. Vilda was among those accused of trying to convince Hermoso to back Rubiales after the kiss. He denied wrongdoing.

Vilda led Spain to its first Women's World Cup title even though 15 players rebelled against him last year, demanding more professional methods by the coach. He stayed in the job with the support of Rubiales.