Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) recently approved purchase of defence equipment worth Rs __________ crore.

Three Indian expats from the UAE are amongst those who won the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award the highest honor conferred on Indian diaspora. President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the award on Girish Pant, Surender Singh Kandhari and Dr. Zulekha Daud and other awardees at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention in Varanasi.

NASA has awarded three teams of Indian students in its 25th Annual Human Exploration Rover challenge 2019 at the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.The program invites college students and high school students to develop and test roving vehicles for future missions to the Mars,Moon and beyond. "AIAA Neil Armstrong Best Design Award" won by team from KIET Group of Institutions in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Team from Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab, received "STEM Engagement Award". The Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, Mumbai, Maharashtra, received the "Frank Joe Sexton Memorial Pit Crew Award" and also won the System Safety Challenge Award at the competition hosted by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Popular singers Shaan and Arijit Singh were given the "Sangeet Mahasamman" award by the West Bengal government at the inaugural session of the Bengal music and folk culture festival held in Kolkata. Legendary singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay gave away the awards. Leading Bengali singers like Rupankar Bagchi, Raghab Chattopadhyay, Manomoy Bhattacharya, Saikat Mitra, Pratik Chowdhury and music director Debojyoti Mishra were also given the 'Sangeet Mahasamman' awards. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the eight-day Bangla Sangeet Mela(Bengal Music Festival) and Biswa Bangla Lok Sanskriti Utsav( Folk Culture Festival). The government has given cards to two lakh folk artistes or 'Lok Prasar Shilpi', and each of them are given Rs 1,000 as monthly allowance.

The government has instituted an annual award titled Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar. It will be announced every year on 23rd January, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The Award carries a certificate and a cash prize of 51 lakh rupees. This year, 8th Battalion of National Disaster Response Force located at Ghaziabad has been selected for the Award for its commendable work in disaster management. The award has been instituted to acknowledge the contribution and selfless service of organizations and individuals to humanity in the aftermath of any disaster.

Popular children's writer Ramendra Kumar was honoured at the 36th International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Congress in Athens, Greece. Ramendra Kumar was the only Indian writer to receive this honour. He chaired 2 sessions at the Congress and presented a paper on 'The Brave New World of Indian Childrens Literature'. He is the chief of communications in the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP). He has written 33 books. His works have been translated into 28 languages. He has won 31 awards by the Children's Book Trust (CBT).

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) launched a new portal Least Available Depth Information System (LADIS) for real-time data on available depth on stretches of National Waterways.

Indo Oman Joint Exercise Al Nagah III 2019, a joint military exercise between Indian and Royal Army of Oman (RAO), commenced this morning at HQ Jabel Regiment, Nizwa, Oman. The opening ceremony saw the unfurling of the national flags of both countries with Omani and Indian soldiers standing side by side signifying the growing cooperation, synergy and understanding between both the countries.

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) signed an MoU for jointly developing infrastructure for fuels, lubricating oil, LPG, Natural Gas and any other related fuel and gas for meeting the requirement of National Waterways. The MoU will provide for an understanding over general modalities of mutual cooperation leading to addressing futuristic demand of any form of energy for Inland Waterways and associated services.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on May 13, 2019 successfully flight tested the ABHYAS, a High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT). The flight test was conducted from the Interim Test Range, Chandipur, Odisha. The RADARS and Electro Optic Systems kept the track of the test which proved its performance in fully independent navigation mode. The test demonstrated the capability of ABHYAS to meet the mission requirement of the defence forces for a cost effective high-speed expendable aerial target. After the first experimental launch in 2012 at the Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range, the concept of ABHYAS was proved and the pre-project details were completed on January 2013.

Naval Air Station Shibpur will be commissioned as INS Kohasa by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba on January 24, 2019. The move is being undertaken to enhance the operational capability of Andaman and Nicobar Command.