The Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram will present Onavillu, a traditional ceremonial bow, to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in connection with its consecration on January 22.

Temple tantri Tharananellur Satheesan Namboothiripad and administrative committee members, including Avittam Thirunal Adithya Varma of the royal family of erstwhile Travancore, will hand over the Onavillu to representatives of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust at a function at 5.30 p.m. on January 18, a statement from the temple executive office has said.

Vinícius Júnior did his best Cristiano Ronaldo impression in Saudi Arabia, scoring a hat trick and leading Real Madrid to a 4-1 rout of Barcelona and the Spanish Super Cup trophy.

Vinícius scored his three goals in the first half as Madrid beat Barcelona to lift its first trophy of the season on January 14. After his first goal, the Brazil forward imitated the trademark celebration of the former Madrid great, with Ronaldo reportedly at the Riyadh stadium.

“It was for Cris, because he is my idol and now he is playing here,” said Vinícius, who was named the best player of the final. “I'm very happy with myself and with my team. It's not easy to play against Barcelona and to win 4-1 is tough. We played an almost perfect match.”

Novak Djokovic was named the Best Balkan Athlete of the Year on Monday for a record eighth time, ahead of NBA star Nikola Jokic.

The 36-year-old Djokovic won three Grand Slam titles in 2023 to take his record tally to 24, while Jokic was named the NBA Finals MVP after leading the Denver Nuggets to the title. Both are from Serbia.

The results of the annual poll were published by the Bulgarian News Agency. A total of 58 athletes received votes in the poll this year, with Bulgarian basketball player Alexandar Vezenkov coming third.

New Delhi, State-owned NLC India has awarded a contract to BHEL to set up a 2,400 mw thermal power project at Jharsuguda district in Odisha. The Pit Head Green Field Thermal Power Project of 2,400 MW capacity, comprising three units of 800 MW each, is based on Ultra Super Critical Technology.

The scope of the work includes engineering, manufacturing, supply, erection and commissioning of equipment such as boilers, turbines and generators for stage one of the power plant, a company statement said.

The entire power of 2,400 MW is tied up with Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Kerala and Puducherry and power purchase agreements (PPAs) are already executed.

Billionaire Gautam Adani's apples-to-airport conglomerate will invest Rs 62,400 crore in the next 10 years in setting up data centres in Maharashtra and Telangana to provide infrastructure for the booming digital services demand in the country.

The conglomerate's flagship firm Adani Enterprises will invest Rs 50,000 crore over the next 10 years in setting up a 1 gigawatt (GW) hyperscale data centre in either Mumbai or Navi Mumbai and Pune, and another Rs 5,000 crore in setting up a 100 MW data centre in Telangana, it said on Wednesday.

Data centres is one of the newer businesses for the Adani group, which predominately was a ports operator and coal trader.

Google India Digital Services and NPCI International Payments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand UPI to countries beyond India.

The MoU has three key objectives. To broaden the use of UPI payments for travelers outside of India, enabling them to conveniently make transactions abroad. To assist in establishing UPI-like digital payment systems in other countries, and to focus on easing the process of remittances between countries by utilizing the UPI infrastructure, thereby simplifying cross-border financial exchanges.

“We are pleased to team up with Google Pay to propel UPI onto the global stage. This strategic partnership will not only simplify foreign transactions for Indian travelers but will also allow us to extend our knowledge and expertise of operating a successful digital payments ecosystem to other countries”, Ritesh Shukla, CEO – NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), said.

RuPay Prime Volleyball powered by A23 has appointed Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador. Hrithik enjoys the physical nature of volleyball and described the partnership as a natural fit for him. Hrithik engaged in a discussion about the upcoming season of RuPay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23 with some of the top volleyball stars who will be competing in the third edition.

“The actor has redefined the meaning of athleticism and fitness over the years and has been a true source of inspiration for many of our athletes. He has been quite vocal about the need to maintain physical and mental fitness, and hence we wanted a star personality such as him to be associated with our product. His presence will not only add glamour to RuPay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23, but it will also make the overall product even more exciting and adventurous,” Tuhin Mishra, managing director and co-founder, Baseline Venture, said.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched a new range of 'Sanatan Khadi Vastra' with 20 per cent discount on Wednesday.

As per a release, Manoj Kumar, Chairman, KVIC launched 'Sanatan Vastra' made from Khadi clothes at the flagship Khadi Bhawan in Connaught Place, Delhi.

The design of Sanatan Clothing has been prepared at the Khadi Center of Excellence (COEK) located at NIFT.

MeitY Secretary S Krishnan on Wednesday launched a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Intelligent Internet of Things (IIoT) Sensors and India’s first graphene centre - India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) in Kerala.

"The CoE in IIoT Sensors is a unique facility established at Makers Village Kochi by MeitY, Government of India and Government of Kerala to catalyse the development of sensors within the realm of Intelligent IoT systems covering a broad spectrum of applications of intelligent sensors in networks, devices and sensor systems," said the ministry in a press release.

Maharashtra has signed MoUs totalling Rs 1.4 lakh crore here on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, following Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's meetings with a number of business leaders, the state government said on Wednesday. Shinde also held discussions with senior delegates from South Africa and other countries.

He met senior representatives from Schneider Electric and Louis Dreyfus, among others. MOUs have been signed with global giants like Berkshire Hathaway and Greenko Energy Projects. These agreements are poised to generate over one lakh jobs in vital sectors across Maharashtra, affirming the state's role as India's stable and dependable gateway for global investors, the state government said.