Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian javelin-thrower to win an Asian Games gold medal as he shattered his own national record by clearing a distance of 88.06m in Jakarta on Monday.

Chopra’s gold is only the second medal India has won in javelin throw in Asian Games history after Gurtej Singh won bronze in 1982 in New Delhi.

The 20-year-old’s winning throw came in his third attempt. He began with 83.46m and fouled the second attempt.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to launch the second phase of the FAME India scheme on September 7 that offers incentives for buying electric vehicles in bulk with an outlay of Rs 5,500 crore, officials said. An inter-ministerial panel finalised the modalities of the scheme and it is expected to be placed before the Union Cabinet for approval and PM Modi would launch the scheme at the opening session of the ‘MOVE’ – a global summit – that is scheduled for September 7-8, in the presence of many CEOs from the automobile sector, news agency PTI said.

PV Sindhu stormed into the final of the women’s singles event at the 18th Asian Games after beating Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in Jakarta. The Rio Olympics silver medallist beat Yamaguchi for a third straight time in a gritty contest where Sindhu won 21-17, 15-21, 21-10. With the win, Sindhu has become the first Indian to reach the final of Asian Games in either singles or doubles.

Sindhu had beaten Yamaguchi at the World Championships in China and most recently in the team event at the Asian Games.

Sindhu started sluggishly making numerous unforced errors but recovered quickly to take control of the match. Despite Yamaguchi’s energetic game, Sindhu stood tall to weather the attack. Sindhu remained solid at the net, using a variety of stroke to force the Japanese player into errors. A long rally ensued at 20-17 but Yamaguchi sent her smash wide to put the Indian ahead.

The Army’s Court of Inquiry (CoI) Monday issued orders to initiate disciplinary action against Major Leetul Gogoi after he was seen with a local Kashmiri woman in a Srinagar hotel earlier this year. The court held him accountable for “fraternising with locals inspite of instructions to the contrary and for being away from the place of duty while in operational area”.

After the Corps Commander’s approval of CoI’s findings, Army authorities will frame charges against the officer citing relevant provisions of the Army Act. They can then decide to either punish the officer or convene a court-martial to try the officer.

A Court of Inquiry had been ordered against Major Leetul Gogoi following an altercation at a Srinagar hotel where he had shown up with a young woman and a man. The trio had been questioned by Srinagar police in May this year after an argument erupted at the Hotel Grand Mamta where the staff refused to let the woman in.

Dutee Chand clinched silver in women's 100m on Sunday at the Asian Games 2018. It was India's first medal in 20 years in this event.

Running in lane number 7, Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds, a tad below her national record of 11.29 seconds.

Odiong Edidiong of Bahrain won the gold in 11.30 while Wei Yongli of China took the bronze in 11.33 in a close finish.

New Delhi: In a major decision, the Defence Ministry on Saturday gave its nod to acquisition of 111 utility helicopters for the Navy at a cost of over Rs 21,000 crores besides approving separate procurement proposals worth nearly Rs 25,000 crores, according to officials.

A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the ministry's highest decision-making body on procurement, cleared the proposals.

Facebook is testing a new feature, that will let users know what they have in common with strangers. Reported by CNET, this feature, dubbed as ‘things in common’, will help people know if strangers match up to them through a college, workplace or hometown. The social media company has said that the feature is testing it out as a label, that will appear on public comment sections.

As part of ‘things in common’, Facebook will create tags for users who comment on posts from a brand or a publisher page. As one notices comments from strangers, the feature will point out a similarity with every stranger, if any exists. For example, users will be able to note if the strangers they spot have also studied under Delhi University, or consider Mumbai to be their hometown.

IN A strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has raised concerns over what he described as an “agenda” to “change the nature and character” of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) and the Teen Murti complex.

Stating that Jawaharlal Nehru belongs “not just to the Congress” but to the “entire nation,” Singh has asked that the Teen Murti complex be left “undisturbed”.

In the letter sent last week, Singh invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said that under Vajpayee’s six-year tenure as PM, “there was absolutely no attempt made to change the nature and character of the NMML and the Teen Murti complex in any way. But sadly, that seems to be part of the agenda of the Government of India now.”

Construction for the proposed Delhi-Mumbai expressway will be completed within three years with construction to begin in December this year, said Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, according to a report by PTI. The ambitious project that was announced in April this year will be built at a cost of ₹ 1 trillion connecting the two major cities of the country. The expressway will cut the travel time by half between Delhi and Mumbai with the average time down from 24 hours to 12 hours for cars, and from 44 hours to 22 hours for trucks. The distance too will be reduced to 1250 km from 1450 km, the union minister said. Work will begin in 40 different locations simultaneously to aid faster construction.

"We will begin the work on the Rs 1 trillion Delhi-Mumbai expressway from end-December and it will be completed within 30-36 months. Money is not a problem at all. NHAI can raise plenty of cheap money from the market," Gadkari said.

Party General Secretary Ashok Gehlot, who announced the setting up of the committees, said that with this development, the party will go into election mode and start the work of putting up a manifesto, and draw strategy for publicity and coordination.