India's star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Pinki won gold medals at the Yasar Dogu International in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday. Sandeep Tomar had to settle for a silver while it was disappointing performance from Rio Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik, who failed to reach the medal round.

Indian wrestlers bagged 10 medals with women winning seven of those.

CWG champion Bajrang, who won a gold at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in Gerogia early this month, did not have to break a sweat as his opponent in the final bount Andriy Kvyatkovskyy from Ukraine withdrew from the 70kg final due to an injury.

NAVI MUMBAI: A city college student, Prabhat Koli (19), who crossed the English Channelwhen he was 16, has become the first Asian to swim the choppy water from Jersey (an Island in the UK) to France in cold weather on Thursday.

The long-distance sea swimmer covered 25km in 6 hours and 54 MINUTES. He started off from La Coupe Point of Jersey, behind St Catherine’s backwater and touched the shore of St Germain Plage on the Normandy coast of France. 

Ace Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma today lifted the Russian Open Badminton trophy at Vladivostok. In the title clash, Sourabh came back from a game behind to beat Japan's Koki Watanabe, 18-21, 21-12, 21-17, and win his first title of the season. Sourabh had won the Chinese Taipei Masters in 2016, and finished runners-up at Bitburger Open the same year.

However, in Mixed Doubles, the pair of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg, lost in the Final against the Russian-Korean team of Vladimir Ivanov and Min Kyung Kim 19-21 17-21 to settle for a runners-up finish.

Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that seeks to prevent big economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from fleeing the country and evading the legal process.

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote. The Lok Sabha had cleared the measure on July 19.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said instances of people running away and evading legal process was increasing, which needed to be stopped as the current laws do not allow dealing with the "severity of the problem".

"Criminal law does not allow us to impound their property," he added.

In 2017, around 1.46 percent of Indians were found to be carriers of hepatitis B virus. This translates to nearly 1.76 crore people, infected with the virus, at the risk of developing chronic liver disease and remaining a part of the transmission pool.

Through multiple efforts of various stakeholders, awareness about the dangers of the disease is growing, yet much more remains to be done to eliminate hepatitis B from India. The vaccine for hepatitis B virus has played a crucial role in reducing the incidence of new infections and this must continue to be India's first line assault on the disease. However, there is also critical need to grow the general public’s understanding of disease transmission to protect people from hepatitis B virus exposure.

Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that seeks to prevent big economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from fleeing the country and evading the legal process.

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote. The Lok Sabha had cleared the measure on July 19.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said instances of people running away and evading legal process was increasing, which needed to be stopped as the current laws do not allow dealing with the "severity of the problem".

"Criminal law does not allow us to impound their property," he added.

The BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, which discussed multilateralism, global governance, health and vaccines, socio-economic empowerment of women, peacekeeping, network of science, parks and technology, inclusive growth, sustainable development and infrastructure (See: Modi calls for technology-led growth for expanded BRICS cooperation). 

On the conclusion of the meeting, the BRICS leaders' issued the following statement:

Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution

the Indian women's compound archery team reached the pinnacle of world rankings for the first time in history, according to the latest rankings, just ahead of the Asian Games.

Asian Games are set to be held from August 18 to September 2 in the twin cities of Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia.

The women's coumpoud archery team of India had won silver medals at the 2018 Antalya World Cup in May and Berlin World Cup in July, 2018.

Courtesy that effort, they lead the world rankings with 342.6 points and are six points ahead of the second-placed Chinese Taipei.

Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Muskan Kirar were two regulars in the women's team in both the World Cup stages, while Divya Dhayal (Antalya) and Trisha Deb (Berlin) were the third members.

Bengaluru: HCL Technologies Ltd surpassed Wipro Ltd to become India’s third biggest software services provider in the three months to 30 June, marking the first change in the pecking order of the country’s $167 billion IT outsourcing industry in six years.

On Friday, Noida-based HCL Technologies said its dollar revenue rose 0.8% to $2.05 billion in the quarter from the proceeding three months. Bengaluru-based Wipro’s dollar revenue declined 1.7% sequentially to $2.03 billion in the first quarter.

Last year, Wipro’s full-year revenue totalled $8.06 billion, about $220 million more than HCL Technologies’ $7.84 billion. However, billionaire Shiv Nadar-led HCL Technologies expects its dollar revenue to grow by as much as 10.4% in the current fiscal year, implying that it expects to end FY19 with $8.65 billion in revenue.

Azim Premji-led Wipro, which does not give a full-year revenue outlook, will need to grow 7.32% this year to retain its third position, a tough ask as the firm has not reported this level of annual growth since 2012-13, when it grew 7.1%.

Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., which edged past Infosys Ltd in quarterly revenue in the June quarter of 2012, has not been considered in the list as it is only listed in the US.

BENGALURU: 

Karnataka has overtaken Tamil Nadu to become a leader in renewable energy capacity. This has been highlighted in a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis or IEEFA.

"Karnataka in the last 12 months has become the top state in India in development of renewables; wind and solar both play a major role. Karnataka has reached 46 per cent of total capacity in renewables in the last 12 months. I think it's a huge achievement for the state of Karnataka," Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at IEEFA, told NDTV.

Renewable energy capacity in Karnataka is 12.3 gigawatts (GW), the highest in India. The southern state's renewable energy capacity now exceeds its coal power capacity by 2.5 GW.

By March this year, Karnataka had a total solar capacity of 5 GW, wind capacity of 4.7 GW, and a small hydro, biomass and heat and power cogeneration portfolio of 2.6 GW.

A massive solar energy plant in Karnataka's Pavagada has helped the state take the lead in renewable energy. So much so that the Institute believes the power-deficit state could actually start sending power from renewable energy to other states.

"I think Karnataka is on the right track of its electricity sector transformation. Currently, 48 per cent of Karnataka's electricity generation capacity comes from renewable energy. So, I think Karnataka should look to building more export grid capacity to help the neighbouring states," said Kashish Shah, energy research associate at the IEEFA.

The oldest person in the world has died at age 117, officials in her home state in Japan confirmed Friday.

Chiyo Miyako, who was known to her family members as “the goddess,” died Sunday, said officials in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo.

Guinness World Records has confirmed that she was the world’s oldest person. Her replacement is yet to be announced by Guinness, but according to media reports, the new oldest person is Kane Tanaka, a 115-year-old woman who lives in a nursing home in Fukuoka, a city in southern Japan.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Tanaka is now the country's oldest person.

Miyako, born on May 2, 1901, became the world’s oldest person in April after Nabi Tajima, a fellow Japanese national from the southern Kikai island, died at age 117.