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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new premises of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Vanijya Bhawan on Thursday (June 23, 2022) at 10:30 am in the national capital. The Vanijya Bhawan, which is constructed near the India Gate, is designed as a smart building which incorporates the principles of sustainable architecture with a special focus on energy saving. It will serve as an integrated and modern office complex that will be used by the two Departments under the Ministry, that is, the Department of Commerce and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

In the first three months of this year, trade between the Russian Federation and the Brics countries increased by 38% and reached $45 billion, said President Vladimir Putin. "Contacts between Russian business circles and the business community of the Brics countries have intensified. For example, negotiations are under way to open Indian chain stores in Russia, increase the share of Chinese cars, equipment and hardware on our market. In its turn, Russia's presence in the Brics countries is growing," said Putin.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra coalition government, known as Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), on Tuesday faced its worst crisis since coming into power in 2019 after senior Shiv Sena leader and state cabinet minister Eknath Shinde went against the party and took some rebel MLAs to BJP-ruled Gujarat, putting a huge question mark on the stability of the two-and-a-half-year-old MVA government. Shinde and other rebel MLAs are expected to come to Mumbai at midnight and then go to Raj Bhavan. Shinde has claimed that he has 40 Sena MLAs with him now.

Launching a damage control exercise, Chief Minister Thackeray sent his confident Shiv Sena leader Milind Narvekar and Shinde’s close aide Ravi Pathak to the Le Meridian Hotel in Gujarat’s Surat city where the MLA from Thane district is camping with dissident Shiv Sena MLAs. The agenda was to meet Shinde (58) and to try to defuse the crisis, which happened hours after the Legislative Council polls, which saw the opposition BJP managing to get its fifth candidate elected, possibly due to cross-voting in its favor from the ruling bloc besides support from Independents and MLAs of other parties.

The three military chiefs on Tuesday briefed PM Narendra Modi about the ongoing rollout of the Agnipath scheme, even as the defence establishment once again stressed it will not hit combat readiness and would not entail any change in the overall recruit ment process and the Army’s regimental system.

Gen Manoj Pande, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari and Adm R Hari Kumar, in separate meetings, apprised the PM

about the recruitment schedule and the steps being taken for successful implementation of the scheme under which 46,000 Agniveers will begin training in November-December.

The state government is virtually clueless about the corruption case in the appointment of teachers. A series of CBI inquiries have begun on the court's orders over the appointment of teachers at different levels. There have been several recruitment related loopholes. In the meantime, several people have lost their jobs on the orders of the court. In this situation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee broke her silence in the assembly. Mamata expressed her anger over the loss of job. The Chief Minister targeted the BJP over the incident. 

Mamata Banerjee indirectly takes dig at Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari