External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar inaugurated the Indian pavilion yesterday at the Berlin International Film Festival for which three feature films and one documentary from the country have been selected. Information and Broadcasting ministry in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is participating in the 70th edition of the festival.

Earlier, Dr Jaishankar held a very good meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas and thanked him for the support his country in expanding cooperation between India and the European Union (EU). The External Affairs Minister, who was in Germany during the weekend for the Munich Security Conference, arrived in Berlin on Monday to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit for the India-EU summit in Brussels next month.

Ashu, Aditya Kundu and Hardeep have won a bronze medal each in their respective weight categories as Indian wrestlers bagged five medals in Greco-Roman events of the Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi yesterday. While Ashu won a bronze in 67kg category, Aditya and Hardeep also bagged the medals of same colour in the 72kg and 97kg respectively on the second day of the competitions.

Ashu beat Syria's Abdulkarim Mohammad Al-Hasan 8-1 while Kundu defeated Nao Kusaka of Japan 8-0 inside one and a half minutes in a lop-sided 72kg bronze medal bout. Later in the evening, Hardeep beat Kyrgyzstan's Beksultan Makhamadzhanovich Makhmudov 3-1 to register India's third podium finish of the day.
 
India has so far five medals in the championships, after Sunil Kumar's historic gold in 87kg and Arjun Halakurki's bronze in 55kg Greco-Roman category on Tuesday.

The Kashi Mahakal Express, the third private train of IRCTC, will start from today. The train service will link the three Jyotirlinga - Omkareshwar near Indore, Mahakaleshwar, in Ujjain and Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi.
 
First Kashi Mahakal train will start from Varanasi this afternoon and will reach Indore tomorrow morning on the day of Mahashivratri. This is also the first overnight journey train run by IRCTC.

Chief Regional Manager of IRCTC Ashwini Shrivastava told AIR that apart from giving high-class facilities, IRCTC is also offering tour packages of Omkareshvar.

Nripendra Misra, former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, elected head of the temple construction committee.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, set up to oversee the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, held its first meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, and elected Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas’s Mahant Nritya Gopal Das as chairman and Champat Rai, described as a social activist and also associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, as general secretary.

The meeting also decided that Nripendra Mishra, former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will head a committee to take decisions regarding the actual construction of the temple.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has received the "Grassroots Charter Bronze Level" membership of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The Asian sports governing body has confirmed this in a letter to the AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das.

This declaration accords AIFF the right to promote its grassroots events and activities with the support and recognition of the AFC in accordance with the applicable terms of the AFC Grassroots Charter. Expressing his happiness over the development,  AIFF President, Praful Patel said Indian football is headed in the right direction.

Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju launched an event in New Delhi yesterday to unveil the five host cities for the FIFA Under-17 Women's Football World Cup which kicks off on2nd of November this year. The matches of the world cup will be held in five cities including Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Kolkata and Navi Mumbai. The finals of the tournament will be played on 21st of November at Navi Mumbai. The cities will play host to 16 teams which will compete across 32 matches to lift the coveted title. The official slogan - Kick Off The Dream - was also unveiled during the event.

Speaking at the event, the Sports Minister said that as he looks forward to the support from the whole country in making this tournament a rousing success. He added that Indian U-17 women's team will be playing in a FIFA tournament for the first time and it is a proud moment for the nation and all possible support will be provided to ensure its success.
 

In Union Territory of Ladakh, two new bird species have been found during the Great Backyard Bird count. The three-day exercise undertaken by the Wildlife Conservation and Birds Club of Ladakh concluded yesterday.
 
Red Throated Thrush and Plumbeous Water Redstart have been found for the first time in Ladakh Region. On the other hand, Common Rose Finch and Grey Haron species have arrived in Ladakh region early than usual. A three-group birders and wildlife experts have counted and recorded a total of 87 various species of birds in Ladakh.

Along with the count, the birders also noted various observations from place to place to conserve the bird species in Ladakh region. The details will be recorded in the eBird India website for further studies.

Greco Roman wrestler Sunil Kumar opened India's medal account in the Asian Wrestling Championships at New Delhi today by winning a Gold. The seasoned grappler beat Azat Salidinov from Kyrgyzstan in the final of the 87 kg category. Sunil Kumar had reached the final by a victory over Kazakh opponent Azamat Kustubayev to finish the semi-final bout  12-8.  Last year also, Kumar had made it to the final and ended with a silver medal.

Earlier in the day, Arjun Halakurki lost his semi-final bout 7-8 against Iran's Pouya Mohammad Naserpour in 55 kg category. He will now be up against Korea's Donghyeok Won in the bronze medal playoff. The Indian wrestlers who crashed out today were Mehar Singh, Sajan and Sachin Rana in different weight categories. 

The Soil Health Card Day is being observed today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme on 19th February 2015 at Suratgarh in Rajasthan. The scheme aims at issuing soil health cards to farmers every two years so as to provide a basis to address nutritional deficiencies in soil. The scheme ensures additional income to farmers by increase in yields and it also promotes sustainable farming.

Launching the scheme, Mr Modi said, the farmers should know the health status of soil. He said, if soil will not be healthy, the farm production will not increase.
 
Talking to AIR News, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal termed it a very important scheme and said that in the last five years crop production is continuously increasing due to this initiative.

India claimed five silver and six bronze medals at the ongoing 2020 Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
 
In 45 kilogram category, K V L Pavani Kumari won silver medals in both youth girls and junior women section, while Sidhanta Gogoi claimed silver in youth boys and junior men events in 61-kilogram category after lifting a total of 145 and 269 kilograms.

Then, Mukund Aher in 49-kilograms then clinched a silver in youth boys category with a lift of 189 kilograms. In 45 kilogram category, Harshada Goud clinched two bronze medals with a lift of 139 kilograms in youth girls and junior women events.

Other lifters to win bronze medals are Boni Manghkya in 55 kg, Nirmala Devi in 59 kg, S Gurunaidu in 49 kg and Golom Tinku in 55 kg.

A total of 197 athletes from 20 Asian countries are participating in the event.