Who received the Pride of Indian cinema award in the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Awards 2018?

India successfully test fired the short range Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM), developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Army, from a test range along the coast of Odisha. It is a sleek and highly mobile air defence system with a strike range of 25 km to 30 km and has a capability of engaging multiple targets. It is different from normal air defence system, as this is an all-weather, all-terrain missile with electronic counter measures against jamming by aircraft radars. It was first tested in June 2017 and followed by the second successful test in July 2017. It will replace the 'Akash' missile defence system which is on its way out due to technological obsolescence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the book "Moving On, Moving Forward - A Year in Office" written by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. Narendra Modi presented the first copy of the book to Venkaiah Naidu. The book was written by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to mark his one year in office.

Iran and Pakistan have decided to set up a Joint Border Reaction Force (JBRF) following a number of deadly attacks by militant groups on their frontier. The announcement comes following tensions between the two countries who have in recent months accused each other of not doing enough to stamp out militants allegedly sheltering across the border. The The Iran-Pakistan border skirts the volatile southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan which has been the scene of frequent attacks on Iran's security forces.

Cyclone Fani with a maximum wind speed of 240-250 kmph, is one of the most biggest and fiercest cyclonic storm over the east coast in nearly two decades. Several villages nearby Puri in Odisha have submerged due to heavy rains and till now at least 3 people have lost their life. Central government has released Rs 1086 crore advanced financial assistance to four states for undertaking preventive and relief measures to deal with cyclone 'Fani'. Out of this sanctioned amount, Odisha will receive Rs 340.87 crore, West Bengal Rs 235.50 crore, Tamil Nadu Rs 309.37 crore and Andhra Pradesh will get Rs 200.25 crore. ii. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has started helpline number 1938 for Cyclone Fani. The people can call this helpline number and can ask for help from the government.

On 9th April 2019, 54th Valour Day of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was observed to Pay Tribute to Martyrs of police at the National Police Memorial in New Delhi. On this day, President Ram Nath Kovind launched Veer Parivar App for assistance to the next of kin of the CRPF martyrs.

The research team from IIT Madras has used a multi-lingual Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scheme to develop a method for reading documents in Bharati script. The researchers have also developed a finger-spelling method that can be used by hearing-impaired persons to generate sign language, in collaboration with TCS Mumbai. The Bharati script is a conglomeration of 9 Indian languages, namely, Devnagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. In the last 10 years, Professor V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy's research team at IIT Madras has worked on developing this script. he OCR scheme first segments the document into 2 parts, text and non-text. After this, the text is separated into paragraphs, sentences words and letters, where every letter is recognised as a character in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) or Unicode. The letter again has several components, namely, the basic consonant, consonant modifiers, vowels.

Konkan Railways Corporation Ltd has signed a contract agreement with Nepal's Department of Railways to supply two 1600 HP DEMU train sets. These trains will be used to operationalise railway link between Jayanagar in India and Kurtha in Nepal. The train sets will be manufactured by the Integrated Coach Factory, Chennai. The agreement was signed in Kathmandu in the presence of Indian Ambassador Manjeev Puri and Nepal's Secretary, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Madhusudan Adhikari. Each train set will comprise of one driving power car, three trailer cars with one air-conditioned, one driving trailer car with standard accessories.

A multi-disciplinary terror monitoring group (MDTMG) has been set up by the Government to ensure synergized and collective action against terror financing and terror-related activities in Jammu and Kashmir. his group will have representatives from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Intelligence Bureau, CBI, NIA, and Income Tax Department. Also, It will take action against hardcore sympathizers among government employees, including teachers, who are providing support to terror activities and investigate the network of various channels being used to fund terror and terror-related activities and take coordinated action to stop the flow of such funds.

The Government of India, the State Government of Chhattisgarh and the World Bank signed a $25.2 Million Loan Agreement to support the State's Reforms in Expenditure Management. This support will cover Expenditure Planning, Investment Management, Budget Execution, Public Procurement, and Accountability. The Chhattisgarh Public Financial Management and Accountability Program, which is the First Bank-Financed State-Level Project in Chhattisgarh in nearly a decade, will also help the State strengthen its Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Tax Administration Systems.