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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the revamped Central Vista Avenue and also unveil the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on September 8, IANS reported said on Friday. The Netaji statue would be installed in the canopy behind India Gate.

The revamped Central Vista Avenue is a part of the Modi government's ambitious Central Vista redevelopment project.

The bhoomi poojan ceremony of the Central Vista Avenue was performed by Union Housing & Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri at India Gate on February 4, 2021.

The Central Vista Avenue is a 3 km long stretch starting from North and South Block to India Gate, that includes the Rajpath, its adjoining lawns and canals, rows of tree, Vijay Chowk and the India Gate plaza is a 3 km long stretch.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will commission India`s first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant at Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kochi on Friday at 9:30 am. INS Vikrant has been built with state-of-the-art automation features and is the largest ship ever built in the maritime history of India. It has been designed by the Indian Navy`s in-house Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, a Public Sector Shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said an ANI report. 

Notably, the Prime Minister will also unveil the new Naval Ensign (Nishaan), doing away with the colonial past and befitting the rich Indian maritime heritage. 

The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier is named after her illustrious predecessor, India`s first aircraft carrier, which had played a vital role in the 1971 war.It has a large amount of indigenous equipment and machinery, involving major industrial houses in the country as well as over 100 MSMEs. With the commissioning of Vikrant, India will have two operational aircraft carriers, which will bolster the maritime security of the nation.As per the Indian Navy, the 262-meter-long carrier has a full displacement of close to 45,000 tonnes which is much larger and more advanced than her predecessor.

The Centre-run National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) Wednesday countered Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's claim that his government was launching the first virtual school in the country.

In a statement, the NIOS, which functions as an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education, said the first virtual school of India was launched by it in August 2021.

"With reference to certain media reports regarding the claims of India’s first virtual school being launched today. It is informed that the first virtual school of the country was already launched by NIOS in August 2021," it said.

In its statement, the NIOS added that presently there are over 7000 study centres affiliated with the NIOS which are providing academic support, while more than 1500 study centres are providing support in skill based-vocational courses to the learners.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the SC secretary general's stand - on a petition filed by a law intern who had accused an ex-SC judge of sexual harassment three years after the alleged incident - on framing of guidelines to deal with such complaints against sitting and retired constitutional court judges.

Appearing for the intern, who had created a huge controversy in 2014 that was termed malicious and a conspiracy by the ex-judge, senior advocate Indira Jaising told a bench of Justices Sanjay K Kaul, A S Oka and Vikram Nath that the court must endeavor to fill the vacuum caused by the absence of guidelines or a mechanism to deal with sexual harassment complaints against sitting and former SC/HC judges.

Rahul Gandhi insulted senior Congress leaders through a show of hands on his "Chowkidar Chor Hai" slogan against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, which discomfited many veterans in the party, said Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the party last week.

After the Congress lost the election and the BJP won a second straight term, Rahul Gandhi quit as Congress president. At a fiery, marathon meeting of the Congress in which he resigned, Rahul Gandhi said it had become impossible for him to function because of the resistance of the seniors in the party. He cited the example of his "Chowkidar Chor Hai" campaign that he said no one backed.