Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
The massive crowds of devotees in temples, elaborately decorated tableaus and Dahi Handi revelry were all missing this year on Janmashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna, as celebrations were dampened by COVID-19 restrictions.
The Union health ministry on Friday said while there is no evidence to suggest that existing vaccines do not work on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, some of the mutations reported may decrease the efficacy of the jabs.
Though India's airlines are certainly bleeding, they haven't yet faced the ignominy of shutting down.
'Chinese troops are not geared to fight Indian troops who are battle hardened and acclimatised and are far more hardy.'
Here's the full text of address to the nation by President Ram Nath Kovind on the eve of the Republic Day 2022.
... 'Or any country which has reasonable vaccine coverage.' 'The emergence of Omicron clearly proves that if we allow a virus to circulate in an unvaccinated population, it would take a form which could be a Variant of Concern, or a new variant.'
Nitin Menon, the youngest member in the ICC elite panel of umpires, considers the Ashes series as the ultimate test for any umpire but he says the biggest challenge in prevailing circumstances is to ensure that the players, knowingly or unknowingly, don't apply saliva on the ball. Besides ensuring that players don't use saliva, umpires will have to monitor that they adhere to social distancing and that their hands are sanitised regularly after they come in contact with the ball.
Always the crown jewel in the Olympic athletics programme, the Rio 100 metres final is shaping up to be extraordinary for many reasons.
South African Caster Semenya's long and controversial reign as the queen of middle distance running looks set to be ended this year not by a track rival but by a new hyperandrogenism rule that will stop her from running 800 and 1500 metres races.
Real Madrid swatted aside Granada 4-1 on Thursday to ensure the La Liga title race will go down to the wire.
The Modi government has been put on notice.'Will it buckle under such pressure? These are times when the moral fibre of the leadership makes all the difference, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Pakistan was very mature in the way it dealt with the incident.' 'India too owned up to the accident.' 'The whole incident was resolved quite amicably.' 'Both countries should be proud of how they have handled this situation.'
'Instead of fighting over whatever will be left of the present world, the permanent members of the UN security council should have raised a little finger to arrest the death and devastation around us,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
IMAGES from English Premier League matches played on Sunday.
South Africa begin their three-month tour of England with a one-day international against the hosts at Leeds on Wednesday and team manager Mohammed Moosajee admitted the players are concerned.
India's head coach Ravi Shastri, on Monday, heaped special praise on Virat Kohli after he notched up his 50th International century in Kolkata and said "sky is the limit" for the skipper who stands at the halfway stage in equalling Sachin Tendulkar's feat.
The project holds strategic significance as Zojila Pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway and remains closed during winters due to heavy snowfall.
'We are also capable of giving a befitting response to any attempt of aggression,' Kovind said.
Here's a presentation of some of the best photos from around the world in the month gone by.
Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya's future was in doubt on Friday after she said she would not take medication to lower her testosterone levels to comply with new rules for the 800 metres.
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Borussia Dortmund scored a goal in each half to beat hosts VfL Wolfsburg 2-0 on Saturday and stay on the heels of Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich.
The company, which unveiled its compact multi-purpose vehicle Triber in India, is bringing the MPV only in petrol engine option as part of the strategy even as it prepares to introduce electric vehicles in the near future.
Cross-country skier Johaug to call time on Olympic career after Sunday's 30km.
It would be realistic to see India's position on the DGMOs joint statement more as 'engagement, different from dialogue', where our subsequent options could be decided depending on the realities of the situation on the ground, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Vote: Tendulkar's 200th Test in Kolkata or Mumbai?
The inability of the economy to create new jobs faster than jobs are lost to automation leads to unemployment.
Atanu opened up about how he honed his skills during the first lockdown when sporting action was put to a grinding halt
Portugal will look to their Euro 2020 opener with Hungary to get a head start
Clashes were reported from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, Narayanpur in North 24 Parganas, and Alipurduar town in north Bengal, among others.
Kerala CM seeks wild card entry for Chitra at Worlds
Manchester United battled back from two goals down to beat Newcastle United 3-2 at Old Trafford on Saturday as a 90th-minute winner from Alexis Sanchez completed a spirited comeback to ease the pressure on manager Jose Mourinho.
A dreadful defensive error from Arsenal's Granit Xhaka gifted Burnley an equaliser as the sides drew 1-1 at Turf Moor in the Premier League on Saturday.
'People know if inflation is not within the tolerance band, then action will be taken so they do not expect inflation to rise above that.'
As a multi-agency probe into the NSE case gathers pace, the grant of preferential server and data access to select brokers and their suspected misuse are being investigated threadbare to unveil all quid pro quo arrangements in a highly-sophisticated scheme that worked like a cricket betting scandal, officials said on Monday. While the bourse has said it has taken several steps over the years to strengthen its technology infrastructure, including as per regulatory orders, the officials said certain fresh disclosures call for a detailed probe into whether a select group of individuals in high positions had banded together to make illicit gains by facilitating the preferential trading slots, beginning over a decade ago. Even a split-second faster access is said to result in huge gains for a trader.
Ahead of India's annual budget presentation next week, IMF's chief economist Gita Gopinath has favoured the extension of the pandemic support measures, thrust on investment in infrastructure and expanding health sectors programmes like Ayushman Bharat, and a very credible divestment path for commercially viable companies. The Indian government has provided a lot of schemes for small and medium enterprises, most of which is in the form of liquidity support, Gopinath told PTI on Tuesday. "And you want to revisit it and see how effectively that is working and see whether additional support may need to be provided," she said while responding to a question on her recommendations to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, ahead of her presentation of the annual Union Budget on February 1. It would be a good time for banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to raise capital given the attractiveness of financing conditions at this point, she said.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
A 58-year-old man died after a power transformer fell on him in Raigad district. 2 people died and 3 were injured in two separate cyclone-related incidents in Pune.
