New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday appointed seven new governors, the most significant of which was the appointment of Bihar’s governor Satya Pal Malik as the new governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

The appointment is crucial for the state as it is under President’s rule. After the fall of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance government, governor N.N. Vohra had taken charge. Now, Malik will take over the reins from Vohra and will be tasked with making key decisions, particularly around security issues.

The other appointments include are those of: Lalji Tandon, senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, as the governor of Bihar; senior BJP leader from Bihar Satyadev Narayan Arya as the governor of Haryana; party colleague Baby Rani Maurya from Uttar Pradesh as the governor of Uttarakhand.

Ganga Prasad, the governor of Meghalaya, was appointed as governor of Sikkim; Tathagata Roy, the governor of Tripura was named the governor of Meghalaya; and Kaptan Singh Solanki, the governor of Haryana, was made the governor of Tripura.

“The above appointments will take effect from the dates the incumbents assume charge of their respective offices,” said a release by the President’s Secretariat.

Palembang: India on Tuesday clinched a maiden Asian Games medal in Sepaktakraw despite its men's regu team losing to defending champion Thailand in Palembang.

The Indian men's regu team lost to Thailand 0-2 but picked up a bronze as both the losing semifinalists are also awarded a medal.

India had defeated Iran 21-16, 19-21, 21- 17 in the first match to make a winning start to their campaign.

India, however, lost to Indonesia 0-3 in the second Preliminary Group B match of the day but still advanced to the last-four stage and be guaranteed of at least a bronze.

Jakarta/Palembang: The ages of Indian champions are dropping, or so it seems. At least in shooting. If it is was silver for a 19-year-old Lakshay Sheoran in trap shooting on Monday, Saurabh Chaudhary went better on two accounts – he is 16 and won a gold medal in 10m air pistol at the 18th Asian Games.

It was India's third gold medal of the Games. Abhishek Verma, too, contributed a bronze from the same event, and later Sanjeev Rajput added a silver from 50m rifle 3-positions. That meant India bagged one gold, one silver and one bronze from the shooting ranges for the day to add to the two silver and one bronze India won in shooting on Monday.

Chaudhary said, "I did not feel any pressure. I just came to compete and do my best." He added, "I have been in good form and given good results and trained hard."

The Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that the None of The Above (NOTA) option cannot be made available in Rajya Sabha elections. A three-judge bench of CJI Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud observed that the NOTA option is applicable only for direct elections and not indirect elections such as the Rajya Sabha polls.

The top court, while hearing the petition of Gujarat Congress leader Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, had earlier said that by introducing NOTA, the poll panel was legitimising the act of not voting. Justice Chandrachud had pointed out that the rule in Upper House polls was an open ballot and the members by not transferring their excess vote to the next member would be violating the contract between parties. “If he doesn’t vote, party will expel him. But by making option of NOTA, you are legitimising his action,” added Justice Chandrachud.

Defending the use of NOTA, the EC said a member had the right not to vote and that would not be against the conduct of election rules or unconstitutional. The poll panel had said NOTA was first introduced in 2014 following an apex court verdict a year earlier and they (the Congress) did not have any objection in subsequent polls as it suited them.

MASON - Novak Djokovic finally was the last man standing at the Western & Southern Open here Sunday. To be that man, Djokovic had to beat one of his fellow all-time greats.

No. 10 tournament seed Djokovic beat No. 2 seed Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 on Center Court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. A sun-baked crowd watched in hot (86 degrees) and humid conditions.

Djokovic had been 0-5 in Cincinnati finales, while Federer fell to 7-1 lifetime in W&S championship matches. The crowd mostly pulled for Djokovic as, in a match of well-liked players, local fans apparently just wanted Djokovic to finally hoist the tournament's Rookwood Cup trophy.

Shortly after winning, Djokovic jumped up and down several times and pumped a fist in the air.

Defeating Japan’s Yukie Irie by 6-2 in the freestyle 50 kg category, 23-year-old Vinesh Poghatwon the gold for India at the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta, Indonesia. With this win, Vinesh becomes the first female wrestler to bag a gold for India in the history of Asian Games. This is the second gold for India in the Asian Games 2018 after Bajrang Punia won the men’s freestyle 65 kg.

Vinesh led the match 4-0 initially before losing some control over the game. In the penalty of 30 seconds allotted, Yukie stood firm and added two points to her tally. It was in the last three seconds where Vinesh scored two more points from a take down and took the final tally to 6-2.

This is the second time Vinesh has won the gold for India in this year. Prior to Asian Games, she had won in the women’s 50 kg freestyle at the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia. She is also the only female contestant of Asian Games from India to win the medal for the second time. In 2014 at the Asian Games held in Incheon, South Korea, Vinesh had won a bronze for India in 48 kg category freestyle

Subhash Sheoratan Mundra has been appointed as Independent Director on the Board of Indiabulls Housing Finance for a period of three years, effective August 18 onwards. The former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and senior banker is not replacing an existing member on the Board, the company said.

Mundra, a Post-Graduate from the University of Poona, used to be the Chairman of Bank of Baroda and an Executive Director at Union Bank of India. He left the RBI in July 2017.

He has served on the Boards of several financial institutions and is presently on the Board of the Bombay Stock Exchange and DSP Blackrock Investment Managers.

NEW DELHI: Former Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh has been awarded with United States (US) 'Legion of Merit'.

The award was given to Singh for exceptionally meritorious service as Chief of Army Staff from August 2014 to December 2016.

Turkey was downgraded by two major rating agencies on Friday afternoon, as its leaders grapple with economic turmoil that has battered its currency and financial markets in recent weeks. Standard & Poor’s cited “extreme lira volatility” in its decision to lower its rating on Turkey one notch, to B+ from BB-. It predicted that the country will fall into recession next year and that a “hard landing” could be in store for its economy.

The lira has shed 38 per cent of its value against the US dollar since the start of the year, nearly half of which took place in the past two weeks alone, S&P

The downgrade pushes the country further into non-investment grade, or junk, territory.

Infosys Chief Financial Officer MD Ranganath, a veteran of nearly two decades at India’s second-largest software services company, has abruptly stepped down from his position, marking the second CFO departure at Infosys in three years.

In a statement to stock exchanges, Infosys did not give a reason for Ranganath’s departure, but said the company’s board had accepted his resignation and Ranganath would continue in his current role till 16 November 2018. The board has already started the process to hunt for Ranganath’s successor, it added.

According to two people aware of the matter, who requested anonymity, Jayesh Sanghrajka, deputy CFO at Infosys, is likely to replace Ranganath as the company’s next finance chief.