President Ram Nath Kovind presented Padma awards to 73 individuals, some posthumously, at a ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Monday.
Swiss court rejects Russia's appeal against Olympic doping ban. The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said the sanctions, which also bar Russia from hosting or bidding for major sporting events during a two-year period, would come into force on Thursday and end on December 16, 2022.
The Grand Old Party must bring widespread reforms across all levels of the organisation to show it is no longer in a state of inertia and to present itself as a viable political alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress veteran Kapil Sibal said.
The Tokyo Olympics are not contingent on the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus, International Olympic Committee member John Coates said. Australian Coates, the head of the IOC's Coordination Commission for the Olympics, said JMA president Yoshitake Yokokura's comment was an 'opinion'.
'If a member of your family has been diagnosed with glaucoma, rest of the members (brothers, sisters and children) should get their eyes tested to rule of early disease,' advises Dr Sandeep Buttan.
'They are acutely aware of how they can use their power as a means to either continue dominating people or to get ahead.'
Rajesh Karkera/Rediff.com heads to south Mumbai to discover why Kitab Khana is considered one of the best bookshops in the world.
By simply being educated and acquiring a degree, you cannot earn money; you need to be skeducated. Skeducation is skill based education. Unfortunately they don't teach you this in the colleges. You got to do it yourself, advises management guru Virender Kapoor.
By the looks of it, the Congress cannot hope to return to power even in election 2024. What it can do is to start from the bottom, hold organisational elections, which are honest, and co-opt those elected to form teams of office-bearers at all levels, right up to the working committee. By the very nature of the elections that they are going to lose, the party should use the interim to shore up youth power, or whatever remains, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Like China, India too should connect the dots and move ahead with a long-term perspective in Afghanistan, advises Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Amid heightened buzz within a section of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that the exit of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa was on the cards, community factor seems to have come to the fore, with prominent Veerashaiva-Lingayat political leaders across party lines and seers throwing their weight behind him.
Gokhale will be visiting China for regular consultations, the Indian Embassy in Beijing said on Saturday.
The actresses are on the jury of the Marrakech Film Festival!
Tokyo's Olympic 2020 contract allows it to postpone the Games until the end of the year, Japan's Olympics minister said on Tuesday, amid concern the coronavirus could disrupt the event. To curb the coronavirus, Japan's government has asked schools to close and encouraged the curtailment of events, including sports meetings, that could attract large crowds.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during his telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, discussed the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan amidst chaotic airlifts of Afghan civilians and diplomats by the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries before the August 31 deadline.
Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq said being confined to home due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown can become depressing and wants some cricket activities to resume soon even if the matches have to take place behind closed doors with proper safety barriers. Misbah said he would love to see some cricket activities resume at the international level and has no problems in playing in empty stadiums.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
In a significant policy statement on the Taliban which is making big gains in its offensive in Afghanistan, China has asked it to make a "clean break" from all terrorist forces, especially the Al Qaida-backed Uyghur Muslim militant group ETIM fighting for the volatile Xinjiang province's independence.
Any NGO critical of the government is unlikely to receive a green signal. The new amendment will leave NGOs vulnerable to harassment. It was the NGO sector that helped provide compassion and food to millions of people during the lockdown. The new Bill will render such cooperation and camaraderie impossible in future, observes Rashme Sehgal.
The first firing which killed six civilians, occurred when army personnel mistook coal mine workers returning home in a pick-up van singing songs on Saturday evening, to be insurgents belonging to the Yung Aung faction of the banned outfit National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), about whose movements they had been tipped-off.
"The Russian Olympic Committee has had its rights fully restored," said Alexander Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, in comments broadcast on state TV.
Manchester City now need, at most, 11 points from their remaining seven matches to secure their third Premier League title in four seasons.
Behind the scenes, sponsors who have pumped billions of dollars into the Tokyo Olympics have grown increasingly nervous about how the coronavirus outbreak will impact the tournament.
India lost the hosting rights of the 2021 men's World Boxing Championship to Serbia after the national federation failed to pay the host fee, prompting the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to terminate the agreement signed in 2017. The elite competition, which would have happened for the first time in the country, will now be held in the Serbian city of Belgrade.
The move came soon after Belgium confirmed a case of the B.1.1.529 variant in someone who had travelled back from Egypt earlier this month, with the European Union (EU) member states agreeing to a snap travel ban on seven African nations.
After a three-and-a-half-hour meeting, which was stormy at times, the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest policy making body, authorised incumbent chief Sonia Gandhi to schedule the internal elections after the conclusion of assembly polls in five states due to be held in April-May.
Nepal plunged into a political crisis last Sunday after Oli, known for his pro-Beijing leanings, in a surprise move, recommended dissolving the 275-member House, amidst a tussle for power with former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.
'An ambassador may not be sure whether there would be a war next month, but prudence requires him to take action to see to it that people leave early.' 'Because once the war starts, it will be very difficult to move out.'
Singapore is the most favoured destination for people living in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines when it comes to post-lockdown travel.
'It is for the first time in about five or six years that the LoC has been silent. That really bodes well for the future'
'Even if the government does not implement an all-India NRC before 2024, it will be part of the party's long-term project.'
Despite the relaxation of the one-child policy in 2016, the number of live births per 1,000 people fell to a record low of 10.48 in 2019, down from 10.94 in 2018.
Speaking at a virtual conference of the World Economic Forum, the external affairs minister, at the same time, said the border row happens to be one part of the larger issue of how India and China adjust to each other when both are rising.
The Mainichi newspaper earlier reported that the government was planning to ban overseas spectators due to worries they would spread the coronavirus, citing multiple unnamed sources.
Indian economist Kalpana Kochhar, who heads the Human Resources Department of the International Monetary Fund, is leaving the organisation to join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the IMF announced on Wednesday. Kochhar, who served in various senior positions during her three decades at the IMF, will retire on July 30, it said.
Legendary India footballer I M Vijayan on Friday urged the country's youngsters to "get addicted to football, not to drugs". The former captain, in his message on the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, said instead of seeking a quick solution through drugs, the youngsters should head to the football ground.
The Paris 2024 organising committee in February proposed surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing as well as breakdancing for inclusion in the Games.
Now we do not know if the Board bugs the dressing room or employs Pegasus in players' phones. But nothing stopped them from speaking with Kohli, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Afghan spinner Rashid Khan returned to Lahore Qalandars, having exited the tournament in February to honour international commitments.