Former Congress Minister M. Mukesh Goud passed away on Monday afternoon at a corporate hospital after prolonged illness.

He was 60 and is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter.

The end came at around 3 p.m. The Congress leader was suffering from cancer, and was undergoing treatment for past seven months.

As his condition deteriorated, family members of the former Minister had shifted him to a corporate hospital late last night. Rumours flew thick and fast about his death on Sunday night, prompting his son and Youth Congress leader Vikram Goud to issue a statement. The hospital authorities too had said his condition was very critical.

Six-time world champion Mary Kom in 51kg category and Simranjit Kaur in 60kg category grabbed a gold each in 23rd President's Cup Boxing Tournament  in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. 

The Olympic bronze medallist Mary decimated Australian April Franks 5-0 in finals. Simranjit Kaur defeated Indonesia's Asian Games bronze medallist Hasanah Huswatun 5-0 in the final bout.

With this, Indian boxers finished their campaign in the Tournament with nine medals. The rich haul comprised seven gold and two silver. 

Meghalaya Assembly Speaker and former Chief Minister Donkupar Roy passed away today in a Gurugram hospital. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed anguish at the demise of Dr. Roy. Mr Modi said, Dr Roy, who was passionate about Meghalaya’s progress, served the state with great diligence and helped transform many lives. 

The Prime Minister offered condolences to family and supporters of Donkupar Roy. 

Rail traffic on Bihar's Darbhanga-Samastipur section of East Central Railways, ECR, has been suspended due to flood water posing threat to the track between Hayaghat and Thalwara station. 

Chief PRO of the ECR, Rajesh Kumar, told AIR News that thirteen trains including four express trains have been cancelled. Fifteen trains have been diverted and nine short terminated. 

Rail officials have reached the site for monitoring the situation. 

Meanwhile, the flood situation continues to be grim in Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur. 

IPS officer VK Johri has been appointed as the next Director General (DG) of country's largest border guarding force, BSF, an official order said Sunday.

The order has been issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) that is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has Home Minister Amit Shah as its member.

Johri, a 1984-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is presently serving as the Special Secretary in the external intelligence agency RAW, under the Cabinet Secretariat.

He will take over the charge of the Border Security Force from incumbent Rajni Kanti Mishra, who retires on August 31. The order also stated that Johri has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Union home ministry with "immediate effect."

Global Tiger Day is being celebrated across the world today. This day is observed every year to create awareness about tiger conservation and protection of natural habitat of tigers. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the results of the fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation in New Delhi. The Tiger Estimation exercise is believed to be the world’s largest wildlife survey effort in terms of coverage, intensity of sampling and quantum of camera trapping. India conducts the All India Tiger Estimation every four years. The Government and National Tiger Conservation Authority have also carried out an economic valuation of tigers in mitigating the adverse impact of climate change.  

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday launched the revamped website of Odisha Tourism, odishatourism.gov.in. The website has the potential to empower lakhs of people operating in the tourism and hospitality sector and showcase Odisha to the world.

“It has been our constant endeavour to showcase Odisha to the world. Tourism is amongst the most sustainable routes to maximising employment opportunities for our youth and ensuing shared prosperity through community participation,” the Chief Minister said while launching the revamped digital platform of Odisha Tourism.

“Leveraging digital technologies is consistently helping us unlock the true potential of Odisha Tourism. Our digital platform will also empower lakhs of people operating in the tourism and hospitality sector, individually and collectively, by virtue of it being an all-inclusive participatory platform,” he said.

Michael Phelps has lost his second world record of the week, this time at the hands of American swimmer Caeleb Dressel in the 100-meter butterfly.

Earlier this week at the FINA world championships, 19-year-old Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak broke a record Phelps held since 2001 in the 200-meter butterfly. He came in .78 seconds faster than the 28-time Olympian, with a time of 1:50.73.

On Friday, it was Dressel who stole the show, breaking Phelps' previous world record of 49.82 in the 100-meter fly with a final time of 49.50.

Chandigarh on Friday received affiliation from the BCCI after nearly four decades.

“Today, in the meeting of BCCI, the affiliation of Chandigarh has been approved. I got the message from BCCI that Chandigarh has been formally inducted as cricket playing state with the Board,” Union Territory Cricket Association (UTCA) president Sanjay Tandon told reporters here in the evening.

Without naming anyone, he said there were some individuals in the BCCI who came in the way of Chandigarh’s affiliation in the past.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu today launched the statewide tree plantation programme ‘Clean-Green Arunachal Campaign 2019’ in Itanagar. 

The campaign under the State Forest department will plant 1-lakh tree saplings in the next 24 hours. On the occasion, Mr. Khandu said that the campaign is being held as part of Van Mahotsav celebration and has set the target of planting 1 Crore tree within the next five years.

Speaking on the biodiversity richness of the state, the Chief Minister said Arunachal is known globally for its huge forest cover and is considered one of the eighteen 'biodiversity hotspots' in the world. 

He said the forest carbon stock in Arunachal comes to 148.52 tonnes per hectare, which is highest in the country and whose value in terms of carbon credit at 6 Euros per tonne works out to 48000 Crore rupees annually. 

Highlighting on the relevance of forest in tribal societies, Mr. Khandu said both are interconnected and culturally bonded where dependence on the forest is vital for tribal people for their everyday needs. 

He called upon the forest department to come up with a vision to preserve this intricate link and to enable the tribal people to reap economic benefit from the forest in a sustainable way.