India's Kumar Nitesh clinched his maiden gold medal at the Paralympics after beating Great Britain's Daniel Bethell in a thrilling men's singles SL3 badminton final here on Monday. The 29-year-old from Haryana was rock solid in his defence and spot on with his shot selections as he beat Tokyo silver medallist Bethell 21-14 18-21 23-21 in an absorbing contest that lasted an hour and 20 minutes.

SL3 class players, like Nitesh, compete with more severe lower limb disabilities, requiring them to play on a half-width court.

Nitesh's victory on Monday ensured that India retained the SL3 gold after Pramod Bhagat clinched the title three years ago when para badminton made its debut in Tokyo.

The United Nations released $100 million on Friday for humanitarian emergencies in 10 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean.

Acting UN humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya said a lack of funding in these countries is preventing aid agencies from providing life-saving assistance, and that is heart-wrenching.

More than one-third of the new funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund known as CERF will go to Yemen, where a civil war is now in its 10th year, and Ethiopia, where government forces are fighting several rebel groups in its regions as well as ethnic-related insurgencies. Yemen is getting $20 million and Ethiopia $15 million.

Dr DK Sunil, Director (Engineering, Research and Development) has taken over as Chairman and Managing Director (Additional Charge) of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from CB Ananthakrishnan, who superannuated on August 31.

Dr Sunil joined HAL in 1987 as a Management Trainee and has about 37 years of experience in varied roles in the company contributing significantly to design, production, quality enhancement and customer support.

Under his leadership, new technologies were developed like radar power supply, voice activated control system, combined interrogator transponder which have become new growth areas for the company. A trailblazer in collaborations, Dr Sunil was instrumental in forging partnerships with institutions like IIT Kanpur for datalinks and IIIT Hyderabad for voice recognition technologies. His visionary approach strengthened HAL's position in cutting-edge technologies.

The Narendra Modi government on Friday (August 30) granted ‘navratna status’ to Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Ltd, NHPC Ltd, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd and Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd.

RailTel Corporation of India has become the 22nd 'Navratna,' followed by Solar Energy Corporation of India as the 23rd, NHPC as the 24th, and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam as the 25th 'Navratna' in India.

Shimla-based SJVN is a listed company with the following shareholders’ pattern: 55% with the Government of India, 26.85% with the Himachal Pradesh government and the remaining 18.15% with the public.

NorthEast United FC etched its name on the winner’s plate of the Durand Cup as it won the 133rd edition of Asia’s oldest football tournament by overpowering defending Mohun Bagan Super Giant 4-3 via a tie-breaker, at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Saturday

Mohun Bagan established a two-goal lead in the opening half but NorthEast fought back after the break, scoring two goals in three minutes to make it 2-2 at the end of the regulation time.

With no extra time allotted, the match went straight into penalty shootouts where NorthEast United goalkeeper Gurmeet Singh made two saves to turn the tables on Mohun Bagan and secure the maiden Durand Cup crown for his side.

The 16-member Indian Deaf Shooting team made a bright start to the 2nd World Deaf Shooting Championship 2024 being held at Hanover, Germany, winning one gold, two silver and one bronze medal on day one of the competitions on Saturday.

Anuya Prasad won gold in the women's 10m Air Pistol while India also had a double podium finish in the men's 10m Air Pistol with Abhinav Deshwal winning silver and Shubham Vashist winning bronze as the duo also teamed up with Chetan Sakpal to clinch the team silver in the event, as per a press release by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

The Championship goes on till September 7, 2024, and Indian shooters will compete in the Air Rifle and Air Pistol disciplines. The squad, which includes such top shooters like Dhanush Srikanth, is also accompanied by an interpreter and coaches Preeti Sharma (Pistol) and Sanjeev Rajput (Rifle).

At the Asian Cadet and Junior Judo Championships in Mungyeong, South Korea, India’s Himanshi Tokas clinched the Silver medal in the Women’s 63-kilogram event yesterday.

19-year-old Himanshi is a Khelo Bharat athlete. This four-day Judo Championship will conclude today at the Mungyeong Gymnasium.

15-year-old Chess International Master Mayank Chakraborty from Assam has won his second Grand Master Norm in a GM Norm Tournament being conducted in Greece today. IM Mayank requires one last norm and to touch the FIDE Rating Point 2500 once to be a Grand Master, in fact the first Grand Master from entire North East India. His present FIDE rating is 2431. He had become International Master this year in April only, and right now he is the player with the highest number of Grand Master Norms and highest rating from the entire North East India.

IM Sahil Dey, aged 17 years, is the second player from North East who is still in the race to be the first Grand Master from North East with one norm and 2375 FIDE rating at the moment.

In West Asia, UN agencies in the Gaza Strip have launched an ambitious campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio today. The campaign relies on a series of localised pauses in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, with the first window beginning today.

The vaccination campaign began today in areas of central Gaza and will move to other areas in the coming days. During this campaign, war will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said at least 90% of children under 10 must be immunised in a short time frame. Last month, WHO confirmed that a baby was partially paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in the last 25 years. UN experts warned that more children may be infected and that there could be a wider regional outbreak if the virus is not dealt with.

In a significant development amid ongoing conflict, Israel’s military and Hamas have also reached an agreement to implement three separate, zone-wise, three-day pauses in fighting across Gaza to facilitate a polio vaccination campaign.

India's Rubina Francis won a bronze medal in the women's air pistol SH1 event final to continue the strong show from the country's shooters in the Paris Paralympics on Saturday.

Rubina scored a total of 211.1 to finish third in the eight-woman final. She had qualified for the final at seventh spot in the qualification round earlier in the day.

This was India's fourth medal in shooting and fifth overall at the Paris Paralympics.

On Friday, Avani Lekhara had created history by successfully defending her women's 10m air rifle gold medal which she had clinched in Tokyo Paralympics, with compatriot Mona Agarwal clinching the bronze.