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International Yoga Day 2026: Celebrations Across India India News Network
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International Yoga Day 2026: Celebrations Across India India News Network
Vivek Aggarwal has been elected as the first Indian vice president of the Financial Action Task Force, a key milestone as India intensifies its focus on combating global terrorist financing and enhancing financial integrity, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.Who is Vivek Aggarwal? IAS officer appointed as FATF vice president (Image: X/PIB)India on Friday secured the vice presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the first time, marking a significant milestone for the country in the global organisation responsible for setting standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.India has been a member of the FATF since 2010.According to an official statement, Union Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal was elected as the FATF vice president at the conclusion of the body's plenary meeting at its headquarters in Paris. The vice president is chosen by the FATF Plenary from among its members and supports the president in guiding and overseeing the organisation's work.Who is Vivek Aggarwal?Aggarwal, a 1994-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, has previously served as the head of India's delegation to the FATF and as Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Panjab University. He has also completed the Intermediate level of the Company Secretary (CS) programme from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. In addition, he undertook a specialised course on Globalisation and International Financial Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science.At the time India's latest mutual evaluation report was released in 2024, Aggarwal was serving as an Additional Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry. He was also concurrently holding the additional charge of Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND).Aggarwal served as Joint Secretary and later Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, from 2019 to 2021. During this period, he was also the Chief Executive Officer of the PM-KISAN scheme and the National Farmer’s Welfare Programme Implementation Society, and led key initiatives such as Digital Agriculture and the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.Between 2009 and 2018, he concurrently held the position of Secretary to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. From 2015 to 2018, he served as Principal Secretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh, while also acting as Managing Director of the MP Metro Rail Corporation and MP Urban Development Company. During the same period, he was Commissioner and State Mission Director for programmes including the Total Sanitation Campaign, Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and PM Awaas Yojana.From 2010 to 2015, Aggarwal was Managing Director and Secretary, Public Works Department (PWD), at the MP Road Development Corporation. Earlier, between 2008 and 2010, he served as Managing Director of the MP Warehousing Corporation and the MP Agriculture Marketing Board.From 2001 to 2008, he held various district-level administrative assignments as Collector and District Magistrate in Kapurthala (Punjab) and in the Madhya Pradesh districts of Rajgarh, Ujjain and Indore.Meanwhile, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal termed Aggarwal's election a "major win" for India, stating that the appointment highlights the country's strong commitment to tackling terrorist financing worldwide."As India continues to champion a zero-tolerance policy against terrorism, this leadership role reinforces our relentless focus on combating global terrorist financing networks and dismantling illicit financial systems," he mentioned.Jaiswal also noted that Aggarwal's "profound expertise" as the former leader of India's FATF delegation would help further the organisation's mission of safeguarding financial integrity.About the AuthorGarv
You’ve probably used VLC Media Player, the free video player with the orange traffic-cone icon — it’s been downloaded more than 6 billion times. But according to its lead developer, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, robots will soon be almost as ubiquitous as his open source video software. Convinced that “hundreds of millions of robots and drones” will be roaming the streets in a few years, this French serial entrepreneur and open-source legend has been building Kyber, an infrastructure layer for controlling remote devices in real time. Its core software is an SDK that synchronizes video, audio, sensor data, and control inputs with minimal latency. This lines up well with the rise of physical AI, and it’s part of why the Paris-based startup was able to raise a $5 million round led by Lightspeed, which has also backed Anthropic and Mistral AI. “Physical AI is only as good as the underlying systems running it,” the American VC firm wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing its investment. Kyber’s potential applications go well beyond AI, though. Kempf told TechCrunch the platform is built for “all the use cases where the person who’s operating is not in the same place as the compute, which is not in the same place as the action.” Remote control is one half of the equation; speed is the other — and it’s what inspired the startup’s name, a nod to the lightsaber crystals in Star Wars. “If you control things in the real world, every millisecond matters,” Kempf said. Kyber’s approach to eliminating lag is rooted firmly in video-streaming technology. The company started as a side project Kempf built while CTO at cloud gaming startup Shadow, and its early focus on streaming makes the VLC connection an easy one to draw. But IoT expertise matters just as much for optimization — tuning performance to a device’s available compute, at scale — the other core piece of what Kyber does. Kempf says other companies with the resources and the need have already built similar software for their own use cases, like remote driving. “But the largest fleets today have maybe 2,000 or 3,000 vehicles. Imagine you need to manage millions of them; that’s not the same thing.” That jump in scale also raises the stakes on observability — knowing systems are actually working will matter even more when AI agents, not people, are managing entire fleets and networks. Even at much smaller scale, though, there’s a real benefit: not needing to physically reach every device just to push a software update, for example. That range — from a handful of devices to millions — means Kyber’s user base will likely span far more companies than will ever become paying customers. True to Kempf’s roots, the core project is open source, while the company sells a productized version to enterprise customers. And it’s not just software: like Palantir and others, Kyber also offers hands-on, custom deployment through forward-deployed engineers, or FDEs. FDEs make up a large part of Kyber’s team, which currently numbers 25 full-time staffers. The startup is headquartered in Paris but has offices in San Francisco and Singapore to support what it expects will be a global client base across a variety of industries. The company says it is already in commercial deployment with customers in defense, telco, robotics, and AI. To focus its efforts, Kyber has been prioritizing three segments: robotics, drones of every kind, and remote IT access, where demand has been particularly strong. In that last segment, Kempf says Kyber aspires to be more than just a Citrix challenger — but even that comparison alone points to a sizable total addressable market. Remote IT access isn’t exactly glamorous, but Kempf seems energized by the problem — and Kyber’s careers page hints at why: “The companies that tried to solve it spent years and tens of millions building custom solutions they’ll never share. We’re building the version everyone else can use.” When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a smal
Android Circuit: Android 17 Arrives, Galaxy S27 Details, Shrinking Smartphone Market Forbes Check out what's new in Android 17 blog.google Android 17 stable update is rolling out to Pixel phones - GSMArena.com news GSMArena.com Google brings new features with June Pixel Drop The Hindu Android 17 allows transferring even more data from iPhones to Android phones SamMobile
Image used for representational purpose The Revised Budget presented by Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan in the Kerala Assembly on Friday has enhanced the outlay for general education for the 2026-27 financial year, allocating ₹1,477.57 crore. An amount of ₹1,032.28 crore has been earmarked for further improving the quality and academic standards of school education.The Chief Minister said children’s participation in sports and games will be made a part of the school curriculum. An amount ₹8 crore has been allocated for improving physical fitness through progressive and sustainable infrastructure and nurturing sporting talents.Menstrual hygieneReferring to the ‘Menstrual Hygiene Initiative for Empowering Girls’, the Chief Minister said its primary objective of is to promote and ensure menstrual hygiene among girls. Other objectives of the scheme include ensuring the availability of sanitary napkins to all girls; providing facilities for their safe and environment-friendly disposal; maintaining clean and hygienic school toilets; creating girl-friendly campuses; generating awareness; conducting workshops; and ensuring State and district-level monitoring.Steps will be taken to grant aided status to eligible special schools.However, the former Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has criticised the Budget saying it neglected the school education sector. The Budget, he said, lacked vision and new quality schemes. There were no bold decisions like the ones taken by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) that had raised school education in Kerala to the forefront nationally.There was nothing in the announcements for raising the quality of pre-primary or school education, teacher welfare, or expanding digital education. The revised Budget completely ignored the comprehensive accident/life insurance scheme for schoolstudents from Classes I to XII in government, aided, and government-approved schools following the State syllabus, which had been announced by the previous LDF government. Published - June 19, 2026 04:56 pm IST
Dutch legend Taeke Taekema joins Indian Women’s Hockey Team for specialised dragflicking camp Hockey India
At least 56 people were killed after a strong storm and heavy rain uprooted trees and damaged houses across several districts of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Thursday (May 14, 2026).Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took cognisance of the loss of lives and damage caused by unseasonal rain, thunderstorms and lightning on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) and directed officials to ensure relief reaches the affected families within 24 hours.According to reports received from various districts, 17 deaths were reported in Prayagraj, 16 in Bhadohi, nine in Fatehpur, five in Badaun, four in Pratapgarh, two each in Chandauli and Kushinagar, and one in Sonbhadra district.According to a list issued by the Prayagraj district administration, seven deaths were reported in the Handia area, four from Phulpur, three from Soraon, two from Meja and one from Sadar due to the storm and rain. In Bhadohi, sources in the district administration said at least 16 people died in storm-related incidents.Additional District Magistrate Kunwar Virendra Kumar Maurya said trees and electric poles were uprooted in several areas while many houses were damaged in the storm.Fatehpur Additional District Magistrate Avinash Tripathi said nine people were killed and 16 injured in storm-related incidents in the district. "Eight people, including five women, died in Khaga tehsil, while a woman died after a wall of a house collapsed in Sadar tehsil," he said.In Pratapgarh, four people died in separate incidents of wall and cemented shed collapses and lightning strikes amid strong winds and rain, the officials said.Superintendent of Police (SP) Deepak Bhukar said Bhim Yadav (25) died after being trapped under debris when a cemented shed collapsed in Ojha Ka Purwa village under the Lalganj Kotwali area.He said Bhushan Pandey (56) died after a wall collapsed in Sari Swami village under the Baghrai police station area.Mr. Bhukar said Shanti Devi (46) of Narangpur village and Lal Bahadur (44) of Chhatrapur Shivala Raghna village also died in storm-related incidents. In Kanpur Dehat district, two persons died in rain-related incidents, the officials said.Police sources said a 19-year-old woman, Ruchi, died after being struck by lightning in Bhauthari village under the Rasulabad area while standing under a neem tree with goats during heavy rain. Several goats also died in the incident.A 60-year-old man standing nearby was also injured, they added.Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Dushyant Kumar said reports regarding human and livestock losses had been sought from local officials and financial assistance would be provided as per government rules.CM Adityanath directed the district magistrates and officials of various departments to visit the affected areas and provide all possible assistance to the victims and their families.He also instructed officials to remain on alert and ordered the revenue and agriculture departments, along with insurance companies, to conduct a survey of the damage and submit a report to the government.Akhilesh urges U.P. govt. to step up relief workSamajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav urged the Uttar Pradesh government to undertake relief and rescue operations on a “war footing” after severe storms and rain-related incidents left several dead across the State.In a post on X, Mr. Yadav said it was “extremely saddening” that “54 people had died” in Bhadohi, Fatehpur, Sonbhadra, Badaun and several other places due to the severe storm and strong winds, while lakhs of people were badly affected following the collapse of houses, trees and walls.The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister urged the government to immediately arrange free and proper treatment for the injured, ensure the supply of food and drinking water, and make temporary accommodation arrangements for those affected.He also demanded dignified last rites for the deceased and called for an early assessment of damage to life, property, crops and vehicles so that insurance claims and comp
Suvendu joins modest cohort of non-RSS CMs | India News Hindustan Times
Two Large Grey Babbler drinking water from a bottle, captured during the City Nature Challenge event in Kalaburagi city. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Even as Kalaburagi endures intense summer heat, with temperatures rising up to 45°C and limited green cover, residents came together to participate in the City Nature Challenge, an international community science initiative focused on documenting urban biodiversity.The four-day event, held from April 24 to 27, was organised across different parts of the city by Winged Endeavours, a local organisation promoting nature-based awareness activities. This marks Kalaburagi’s participation among...
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