Social media posts of India's male shuttlers on reaching Malaysia for the Badminton Asia Team Championships were going viral a week back. As the Thomas Cup champions, all eyes of the badminton world were on them.

Led by PV Sindhu, the women too put out similar posts, but they never gained similar traction. It was understandable. Twice Olympic medallist Sindhu was returning from a four-month injury layoff, and barring Ashwini Ponnappa, most of the team was young – Tanvi Sharma, the youngest, is 15 – with barely any international experience.

Yet this unheralded women’s team showed incredible maturity to stand atop the rostrum in Shah Alam on Sunday afternoon after India beat Thailand 3-2 in the final to clinch the biennial title for the first time since its inception in 2016.

Chhattisgarh govt plans to bring in a legislation to stop “illegal religious conversion” in the state.

During a debate on budgetary demands in the assembly on Wed, minister for religious trusts and endowments Brijmohan Agrawal said many forces were “at work to alter the demography of Chhattisgarh”. In order to prevent these activities, an anti-conversion bill, titled ‘Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill’, would be introduced during the current session itself, he announced.

Around a fortnight ago, CM Vishnu Deo Sai had alleged that Christian missionaries were carrying out conversion under the garb of healthcare and education. Speaking at a school event, Sai had said the missionaries were “very active” in the state and were “dominating” the two sectors, resulting in a rise in religious conversion. “All this will stop soon, and Hindutva will gain in strength,” he had said.

Commissioner railways safety (CRS) Dinesh Chand Deshwal on Friday conducted a trolley trial run on a 19-km long rail track between Sangaldan to Sumber. It was followed up by a high-speed test for electric trains from Sangaldan to Khari in Ramban district.

“On the second day of his two-day visit to Banihal, the CRS on Friday inspected the tracks, tunnels, electrification, railway stations and allied infrastructure on the 19-km long rail track between Sangaldan and Sumber. On Thursday, he inspected the 15-km long Khari-Sumber rail track,” officials said.

Renowned Jain monk Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj died on Sunday at Chandragiri Teerth in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district after undertaking 'sallekhna'. He was 77.

'Sallekhna' is a Jain religious practice involving voluntary fasting unto death for spiritual purification, a statement from the teerth said.

Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj attained Samadhi through 'sallekhna' at Chandragiri Teerth at 2:35 am, the statement said.

"Maharaj was staying on the teerth in Dongargarh for the last six months and was unwell for the past few days. For the last three days, he was observing 'sallekhna', a religious practice of voluntarily fasting to death, and had quit intake of food and liquids. According to Jainism, it is a vow taken for spiritual purification," the statement said.

Japan and the US are planning to launch the world's first wooden satellite, the LignoSat probe, into space this summer.

This unusual spacecraft is made up of magnolia wood which, during the experiments, was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. The wooden satellite was created by Japanese scientists and now the US has become a part of their mission as they finalized the satellite to be launched on a US rocket, The Guardian reported.

In a pioneering effort to address the growing issue of space debris, the researchers at Kyoto University in collaboration with the logging company Sumitomo Forestry built the timber satellite. They came up with the idea of using an alternative to metal, which are biodegradable material.

Iconic Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Sunday selected as the leader of IPL’s all-time greatest team which was picked to celebrate the success of world’s most-popular T20 league which was launched in 2008.

The selection panel consisted of former cricketers Wasim Akram, Matthew Hayden, Tom Moody and Dale Steyn. About 70 journalists were also part of the selection process.

Australia’s fiery David Warner and India’s batting main stay Virat Kohli were chosen as openers while ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle was given the number three spot in batting order.

The middle-order consisted of Suresh Raina, AB de Villiers, Suryakumar Yadav and Dhoni, while Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Kieron Pollard were the three all-rounders in the 15-member squad.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday presented his 15th Budget. The state's budget outlay stands at ₹3.71 lakh crore this year, CM Siddaramaiah said. He added that Karnataka's economy is estimated to grow at 6.6% in FY 2025.

The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal launched 'Sagar Aankalan' guidelines during the stakeholders meet for implementation of the MoUs signed earlier at the Global Maritime India Summit 2023 (GMIS 2023) on Friday in Delhi.

The "Sagar Aankalan" Guidelines for National Benchmarking of Indian Ports Performance would be applicable to all Indian seaports with the aim to achieve mapping and benchmarking of Indian Port's-logistics performance and efficiency, harmonisation of standards, definitions and performance with global benchmarks, Improving competitiveness, efficiency and overall performance of the port sector with focus on improvement, productivity, sustainability and customer satisfaction.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Jal Shakti, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar exchanged the MoU with Mr. Mauricio Lizcano, Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia.

The signatories were Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary of MeitY from India’s side, and Mr. Mauricio Lizcano from Colombia’s side. The MoU intends to promote digital transformation (viz INDIA STACK) through capacity-building programs, the exchange of best practices, the exchange of public officials and experts, the development of pilot or demo solutions and the facilitation of private sector contacts to mutually benefit the digital ecosystems of both countries.

Both sides discussed the importance of Digital Public Infrastructures. These infrastructures constitute a set of shared digital systems that are secure and interoperable. They can be built on open standards to deliver and provide equitable access to public and private services. India Stack Solutions are DPIs developed and implemented by India at population scale to provide access and delivery of public services.

The Bihar Forest and Environment department will organise the three-day Nagi Bird Festival in Jamui from Saturday.

Secretary of the Forest Department, Bandana Preyasi told that after the successful international workshop on birds, the Bihar government is going to conduct the Nagi festival in Jamui, Bihar.

The festival aims to promote bird conservation and educate people about migratory birds and their habitats.

Preyasi said that the main objective behind this festival is to make people aware of these migratory birds. Tourism will also be promoted as these birds are rare. They come here and stay for about two and a half months. So it is a very strong eco-tourism site.