More than 300 million Indian citizens - many of whom had never before set foot in a bank - opened new bank accounts as part of the Narendra Modi government's "Jan Dhan" plan to improve financial inclusion in the country.
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A Musical Tribute to the victims of 9/11 by Dr. L. Subramaniam at Georgetown University on Monday, September 11, 2017.
Google recently launched a mobile payments app designed for the Indian market, becoming the latest big player to join an increasingly crowded field in India's push to go cashless. The app, called Tez, will connect users' smartphones to their bank accounts via India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a platform already used by 55 of the country's top banks.
Arjan Singh, one of the country's most celebrated soldiers, passed away at the age of 98. The only Air Force officer to be promoted to the five-star rank of Marshal, Singh flew support missions during World War II, led campaigns throughout wars in India's history and, after retiring from the service in 1969, served as India's Ambassador to Switzerland.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and hailed the country's contributions to a number of UN efforts.
India will soon house a new bullet train, thanks to the country's recent agreement with Japan to develop a "Hyperloop" route between Mumbai, on India's western coast, to Ahmedabad, a city in the northwestern state of Gujarat and whose famous stepwell is shown above. The train will "revolutionize" the railways, according to the government, turning the normal train ride - typically lasting more than seven hours - into a two hour-trip. Read on to learn more about the train and its 325 mile-long route - from the project's schedule to estimated job creation to the next planned high-speed train, expected to run from Delhi to Amritsar, a city in the country's north, near the Pakistani border.
