Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India today announced the establishment of the High Performance Centres in seven places across the country to provide state-of-the-art facilities to Junior and Sub-Junior players. The move is aimed at grooming young talent in view of 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games.

While the National Hockey Academy at Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi along with SAI at Sundergarh, Bhopal and Bengaluru will be active within the next three months, the remaining three centres will be developed over the next one year.

These centres will be closely monitored by Hockey India and its High Performance Director and the programme will also ensure that the athletes are provided with international exposure. These seven centres will be set up under the Khelo India scheme and will have expert professional training, utilization of sports science and education of the youngsters.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will inaugurate the 11-km stretch of corridor-II of elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail today evening. The stretch starts from Jubilee Bus Station in Secunderabad and joins at Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station in Hyderabad facilitating bus commuters with two major Railway Stations in the State Capital.

Managing Director NVS Reddy informed that the total operational length of the Hyderabad Metro will become 69 kilometers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the project by dedicating the Miyapur and Nagole stretch to people in November 2017. Another stretch of Hyderabad Metro between Ameerpet to L B Nagar was commissioned in September 2018.

In the ongoing defence expo, the ‘Lucknow Declaration’ was adopted yesterday at the India - Africa Defence Conclave held on the sidelines of the event. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his counterparts from 12 African countries along with representatives of 38 other African countries were present at the conclave, which was organised for the first time.

The ‘Lucknow Declaration’ recalled the Indian contribution to defence and security in the African continent and states that terrorism is a major threat in the region.  

Addressing the conclave Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh said that India is an all weather friend of Africa and Africa is at the top of India’s priorities. AIR correspondent reports that 14 MoUs had been signed yesterday between India and Russia which will pave way for production of different Russian defence equipment in India.

PTIPrime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his government has set a defence export target of 5 billion dollars in the next five years.

Inaugurating the DefExpo, Mr Modi said, in 2014, the export of defence equipment from India was about 2,000 crore rupees. In the last 2 years, it has gone up to 17,000 crore rupees. In the next five years, our target is export of 5 billion US dollars, which is about 35,000 crore rupees, Prime Minister said. Mr Modi said, our mantra is Make in India, for India, for world. The eleventh edition of the mega defence event is being held in Lucknow with the theme "India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub". The five-day DefExpo - India's biennial exhibition of military platforms and weapons - is being attended by 38 defence ministers and top executives of 172 foreign defence majors and 856 Indian companies.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Parliament on Wednesday the formation of a trust for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya as directed by the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case last November.

“I am happy to announce that in the cabinet meeting today morning, we took significant decisions on the Ayodhya trust. As per the orders of the Supreme Court, we have set up a trust. The Sri Ram Janma Bhumi Tirtha Shetra will be the name of the trust. It will be an independent body,” Modi said.

In India, everyone is a part of one "broad family", be it Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis or Jains, Modi said.

Services lifter Sambo Lapung scripted a new National record of 188kg in clean and jerk on his way to take the gold medal in men’s 89kg in the National weightlifting championships at the Khudiram Anusilan Kendra here on Wednesday.

Lapung, who had secured the silver medal in 81kg last year, hoisted 145kg to take a one kg lead over R.V. Rahul in snatch. Later, he broke the clean and jerk record of 187kg in his final attempt to aggregate 333kg.

Hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, Lapung – a former National champion in 69kg – won a National title after four years.

“I switched to 89kg immediately after the last Nationals. I was getting injured for lowering my body weight too much. I am happy to create a new record,” said Lapung.

Railways’ Rahul was second with 323kg, while Ram Karan Prajapati – another Services lifter representing Uttarakhand – got the third place with 314kg.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved introduction of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020. It also gave ex-post facto approval for creation of 21 posts of Directors and Registrars, one each in 20 IIITs (PPP) and one in IIITDM Kurnool (IIIT-CFTI).

Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will declare the remaining 5 IIITs-PPP along with the existing 15 Indian Institutes of Information Technology in public private partnership mode as ‘Institutions of National Importance’ with powers to award degrees.

This will entitle them to use the nomenclature of Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) or Master of Technology (M.Tech) or Ph.D degree as issued by a University or Institution of National Importance. It will also enable the Institutes to attract enough students required to develop a strong research base in the country in the field of information technology.

The government on Wednesday approved setting up a new major port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra at a cost of ₹65,544.54 crore.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Cabinet gives in-principle approval for setting up a new Major Port at Vadhavan in Maharashtra. Total cost of the project is likely to be ₹65,544.54 crore,” an official statement said.

Vadhavan port will be developed on landlord model, it said, adding that a special purpose vehicle (SPV) will also be formed with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) as the lead partner with equity participation equal to or more than 50% to implement the project.

The 11th edition of the biennial mega defence exhibition, DefExpo 2020, kick starts on Wednesday at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the 5 day event.

In addition to exhibiting products and technologies and live demonstrations by the Services, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and industry will showcase the land, naval, air and internal security systems during the Defexpo 2020. There will be special focus on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’ In the exhibition which is also a sub theme and aligns with the concept of the future battlefield.

Manufacturing for the aerospace and defence sector through application of newer technologies will also be focused upon. The ‘India Pavilion’ will exclusively showcase the jointness between the public and private sector, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)/Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and innovation eco-system, which is the key to the way forward.