Olympian fencer CA Bhavani Devi, representing Tamil Nadu, defended her National Games gold medal in the women’s sabre individual event beating S Sowmiya of Kerala 15-5 in the final here on Thursday.

Devi had won gold in the same event in the 2022 National Games in Gujarat.

In gymnastics, Yogeshwar Singh of Haryana clinched gold in men’s all-round individual event. Pranati Nayak, representing Odisha, won the gold in the women’s all-round individual event.

Babu Gaonkar gave Goa their first gold medal of the Games after winning the men’s laser-run event in modern pentathlon at Ponda.

India has secured 70 medals so far including, 17 gold, 21 silver, and 32 bronze at the ongoing Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China. Babu Sidhartha seized gold in R6 - Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1 by scoring 247.7. He leapfrogged China's Chao Dong by 0.2 points in a close battle. In men's F-46 shot put, Sachin Khilari clinched the first gold on day four, breaching the Record mark by registering 16.03m. Bhagyashri Jadhav with a best effort of 7.54m bags silver in women's F-34 shot put. In men's F-46 Shot Put, Rohit Kumar bagged bronze.  Narayan Thakur kickstarted today's medal streak with a bronze in men's T35 100m. He clocks 14.37 seconds in the event to clinch bronze. Meanwhile, Shreyansh Tiwari secured an impressive bronze in the men's T-37 100m event with a remarkable time of 12.24 seconds.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Maharashtra and Goa today. Mr Modi will reach Shirdi in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra this afternoon where he will perform pooja and darshan at Shri Saibaba Samadhi Temple. He will also inaugurate the new Darshan Queue Complex at the temple. The new Darshan Queue complex at Shirdi is a state-of-the-art modern mega building envisaged to provide comfortable waiting areas for the devotees. It is equipped with several waiting halls with a cumulative seating capacity of more than ten thousand devotees. It has provision of air-conditioned public amenities like cloak rooms, toilets, booking counters, prasad counters, information centre etc. The foundation stone of this new Darshan Queue Complex was laid by the Prime Minister in October 2018.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced Amol Muzumdar as the new head coach of the Indian women's cricket team.

The board's Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra, and Jatin Paranjape, interviewed the shortlisted applicants for the role and after thorough and thoughtful deliberation, the three-member committee unanimously recommended Muzumdar to take over the position which has been vacant since Ramesh Powar was removed back in December last year as part of a BCCI internal restructuring.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting of the 43rd edition of PRAGATI involving Centre and State governments yesterday.

PRAGATI is the ICT-based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation. He reviewed eight key projects spread across seven states having cumulative worth around 31 thousand crore rupees. Among these, four projects were concerned with water supply and irrigation, two projects for expanding National highways and connectivity, and two projects for rail and metro rail connectivity. These are Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

A remarkable piece of history unfolded precisely five decades ago when then PM Indira Gandhi inaugurated the country’s first women’s police station in Kozhikode and handed its first sub-inspector M Padminiamma a pen to sign the inaugural register.

Kerala police take immense pride in declaring it the first police station in Asia for women on their website, yet there’s a twist to this tale.

Some assert that this trailblazing initiative might, in fact, hold the distinction of being the world’s first of its kind. Padminiamma, who retired as an SP in 1995, vividly recalled the historical moment from October 23, 1973, that would go on to shape the way women accessed law enforcement in Kerala and across India. The idea behind the Vanitha (women’s) police station in Kozhikode was both progressive and humane, Padminiamma said in Thiruvananthapuram, where she lives with her son.

In Iceland, tens of thousands of women went on a one-day strike yesterday to protest against gender discrimination. The striking women were also joined by Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdóttir. She said the fight for equal treatment was moving far too slowly at home and abroad. Looking at the whole world, it could take 300 years to achieve gender equality," Katrin added.

The strike was called to protest gaps in pay compared to men and gender-based violence, as well as to highlight unpaid work such as childcare that often falls on women, organisers said. According to the Icelandic Teachers' Union, women make up the majority of teachers at every level of the educational system, including 94 percent of kindergarten teachers.

A national level Saras Aajeevika Mela 2023 will begin today in Gurugram, Haryana. The 17-day fair, which is being held at Leisure Valley Ground, Gurugram will continue till 11th of next month. Around 800 women of Self-Help Groups from 28 States will display their varied range of products like handicrafts, handlooms and natural food items from rural areas across the country at the fair. Entry to the fair will be free and people can visit between 11 AM to 9.30 PM. SARAS Mela is an initiative by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission of Ministry of Rural Development  to bring the rural women Self Help Group members under one platform to showcase their skills, sell their products and help them build linkages with potential market players.

Reserve Bank of India has asked private banks and wholly owned subsidiaries of foreign banks to ensure at least two Whole Time Directors (WTDs), including the MD and CEO, on their boards to facilitate succession planning. In an official note, the RBI said, the number of Whole Time Directors should be decided by the Board of the bank by taking into account factors such as the size of operations, business complexity, and other relevant aspects.

The RBI directed banks that currently do not meet this requirement to submit their proposals for the appointment of WTDs under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, within a period of four months from the date of issuance of the circular.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched Operation Chakra-II to fight against transnational organised cyber-enabled financial crimes in India. For this, India’s federal agency has partnered with Microsoft and Amazon as well as with national and international agencies to combat and dismantle infrastructure of illegal call centres.

CBI said that during a nationwide crackdown, it conducted searches in five separate cases at 76 locations across multiple states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Bihar, Delhi, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh.