Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul have been suspended pending an inquiry into their comments during a TV show, ruling them out of the ODI series against Australia starting Saturday. The cricketers, who have been in the eye of a storm following their remarks on ‘Koffee with Karan’, were omitted from the line-up for the opening match in Sydney.

“The CoA in accordance with the BCCI has decided to suspend Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul from playing any form of cricket after their comments on a TV show. The duo will now return to India and an enquiry and proceedings will be made against them for misconduct and indiscipline,” the CoA said in a statement.

It further stated that in accordance to Rule 41(6) of the BCCI Constitution, “the players are hereby suspended with immediate effect from participating in any manner whatsoever in any match or function or event or activity that is authorized, organized, sanctioned, recognized or supported in any way by the BCCI, the ICC or any State Association, until final adjudication of the matter.”

The players were first sent a notice by the CoA to which they responded with an apology. “After considering their reply, it was decided that the BCCI would proceed against both for misconduct and indiscipline,” the statement read. It ended by stating that the selectors will prepare replacements for the two players for the ODI series against Australia and New Zealand.

With several states engaged in a bitter fight over water sharing, Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said there is enough water available in the country but the real issue is effective water management.

He was speaking at an event where the Centre entered into an agreement with six states — Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand — for the construction of the Renukaji Multi-Purpose Dam project in the Upper Yamuna Basin.

The project was conceived as a storage project on the Giri River (a tributary of river Yamuna) in Sirmour District of Himachal Pradesh. It envisages construction of a 148-metre-high rock filled dam for supply of water to Delhi and other basin states. The project will also generate 40 MW of power during peak flow. 

The Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. (HPPCL) will execute the project and its total live storage is 0.404 MAF. About 1,508 hectares in the territory of Himachal Pradesh will be submerged by the project.
Gadkari, who attended the agreement signing event with chief ministers of all six states that are part of the programme, said the government will try to get Cabinet approval as soon as possible and all proposed dam projects,  once completed will ensure more flow in River Yamuna which is the need of the hour. “A consensus on the Kishau Multi Purpose project on River Yamuna has also been developed and soon an agreement for it will also be signed,” he said. 

The first human space flight mission is targeted to be completed by December 2021, while two unmanned flights will be carried out by December 2020, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Sivan announced Friday.

“The initial training for Gaganyaan will be done in India and advanced training may be in Russia. Women astronauts will be there on the team. That’s our aim,” Chief K Sivan was quoted saying by news agency ANI.

The space agency chief also said that ISRO will also set up six incubation and research centres across the country. “We will bring the Indian students to ISRO, why do the Indian students need to go to NASA,” he added.

Meanwhile, at a cost of about Rs 800 crore, India’s Moon mission Chandrayaan-2 is also planned to be launched by mid-April, Sivan said.

Prime minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on 21st of this month at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. 

The three days long event will attract many eminent persons of Indian origin from the world over. Speaking to media in New Delhi, Minister of state in External Affairs General V K Singh today said the first day of the Divas will be dedicated to the youth. General Singh said there will be seven sessions in the  Pravasi Bharatiya Divas programme.

Our correspondent reports, in a bid to strengthen the engagement of the overseas Indian community and reconnect them with their roots, the government of India organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. 

On the third day of the spectacular sports event, Khelo India host Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are in the quest of increasing their Medal tally. Today the gold medal tally is expected to go beyond 60 medals. 

"In Khelo India Youth Games Maharashtra and Utter Pradesh are on the winning spree of models. In weightlifting girls under 17 in 55 kg category, Shrishti from Utter Pradesh won Gold Model, Anai Wangsu from Arunachal Pradesh won Silver and Bibari Boro from Assam won bronze. 

In girls Under 21 category S. Bindyarani from Manipur bagged Gold model, Gauri Pandey from Uttar Pradesh won silver and Saloni Singh from Uttar Pradesh won bronze. During the Day Shooting, trap qualifying matches will be held. 

Swimming Under 17 and Under 21 both boys and girls group events are taking place. Meanwhile, Hockey group state matches are finishing their rounds today in Mumbai. 

M C Mary Kom has attained number one position in the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) latest world rankings.  She became the most successful boxer in world championships' history when she claimed the 48kg category top honours in Delhi in November last year. In the d rankings put out by AIBA, Mary Kom is placed top of the charts in the weight division with 1700 points. She will have to jump to 51kg in pursuit of her 2020 Olympic dream as 48kg is not yet included in the Games roster. 

Last year she picked up gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and a tournament in Poland. She also won a silver at the prestigious Strandja Memorial in Bulgaria. In the 51kg category list Pinki Jangra is placed eighth.  Asian silver-medallist Manisha Maun is  placed eighth in the 54kg category.

In the 57kg division, former world silver-medallist Sonia Lather was placed at the second spot. World bronze-medallist Simranjit Kaur  took the fourth position in the 64 kg category.
India Open gold-medallist and world bronze-winner Lovlina Borgohain took the fifth position in the 69kg category. The men's rankings have not been d yet.

Hockey India removed Harendra Singh as the coach of Indian senior men’s team on Wednesday. According to the press release, the decision was taken after a meeting of Hockey India High Performance and Development Committee on Monday, which was attended by Chairman Dr. RP Singh and members including Olympians Harbinder Singh, B.P. Govinda and Syed Ali. The release stated that Singh was given back the charge of the Junior Men’s team, “with a vision and emphasis on building a strong player base ahead of the 2021 Junior World Cup and the 2020, 2024 Olympic Games.” Harendra is the 25th coach of the men’s hockey team who has been sacked in as many years, and the sixth in last six years.

The national body invited applications for the position of the Chief coach of the Men’s Hockey Senior team which will be returning to the training camp in February 2019 for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup starting March 23, 2019. Until the appointment of a new boss, Hockey India High Performance Director, David John and current Analytical Coach, Chris Ciriello will oversee the team.

Under Singh, India managed to reach the quarterfinals of the Hockey World Cup, after topping in the group stage. But the side failed to make it into the semifinals after going down 2-1 against the Netherlands. After the defeat, Singh had slammed the referees at the press conference. “My warrior team can only fight 11 vs 11. But not 13 vs 11,” he had said.

A high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has removed Alok Verma as the chief of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A report by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had accused Verma of corruption.

The other members of the committee were Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Justice A K Sikri, who was nominated by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to represent him.

Verma was ousted by a 2:1 majority. PM Modi voted against Verma, while Kharge wanted the ousted CBI boss to continue. Having the deciding vote, Justice Sikri found the CBI chief's continuance "detrimental to institutional integrity".

Verma has now been appointed as the Director General of Fire Services.

Nageshwar Rao has been appointed as the interim director of CBI till the appointment of a new director or until further orders.

The CVC report spoke about the controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi's case and claimed that CBI team looking into the case wanted to make Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana an accused in the case but Verma never gave clearance.

The Centre on Thursday stepped up its efforts to combat air pollution by launching a five-year action plan with a tentative target of 20-30% reduction in concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 by 2024, with 2017 as the base year.

The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched by Union minister for environment, forests and climate change, Harsh Vardhan with an initial budget of 300 crore for the first two years.

“So far we had only been looking at National Capital Region (NCR) to mitigate air pollution, but now we have attempted to reach out to different parts of the country. It is a comprehensive plan that is specific to each city,” said secretary, ministry of environment, C.K. Mishra.

The plan includes 102 non-attainment cities, across 23 states and Union territories, which were identified by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the basis of their ambient air quality data between 2011 and 2015.

Non-attainment cities are those which have been consistently showing poorer air quality than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These include Delhi, Varanasi, Bhopal, Kolkata, Noida, Muzaffarpur, and Mumbai.

As part of the programme, the Centre also plans to scale up the air quality monitoring network across India. At least 4,000 monitors are needed across the country, instead of the existing 101 real-time air quality (AQ) monitors, according to an analysis.

The former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the three states in which BJP suffered electoral reverses in the recently-held assembly elections, were on Thursday appointed national vice presidents of the party. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh, and Vasundhara Raje were given the new responsibilities ahead of general elections.

The appointments were made by BJP chief Amit Shah. The move indicates the three leaders will play a crucial role in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The saffron party suffered a severe blow in the run-up to the 2019 general elections as Congress returned to power in three Hindi heartland states. The grand old party appointed Kamal Nath, Bhupesh Baghel and Ashok Gehlot as CMs of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, respectively.