India's economy expanded at its slowest pace in over six years with the country's gross domestic product (GDP) standing at 5 per cent in the first quarter of current financial year (2019-20), while the manufacturing sector's gross value added or GVA in the first quarter crashed to 0.6 per cent from 12.1 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year; Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that state-run banks will be merged to form a dozen strong lenders, following which there will be 12 public sector banks in the system instead of 27; The National Register of Citizens or NRC - a list intended to identify legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants from Assam - will be published at 10 am today, with around 41 lakh people expected to be left out; Nripendra Misra, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's closest aides and a member of his team since he came to power in 2014, has quit as Principal Secretary to the PM. In tweets, the Prime Minister called him an outstanding officer; The Supreme Court has said that the Uttar Pradesh law student, who is said to have been found in Rajasthan nearly a week after she went missing, will be kept under protection in Delhi and her parents should be brought in to meet her; Thank you for helping Sunaina Rawat, the 12-year-old from Uttar Pradesh who is determined to become a doctor and help her village. Hundreds of you donated generously for Sunaina's education, helping us raise Rs. 31,54,879; all this and more on today's newswrap.
