All eyes will be on India's top singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tennis tournament, which begins here Monday.

The Chennai left-hander has been given top billing in the 64-player singles draw, which has a fair sprinkling of players in the top-200 and Indians eyeing ATP points.

India's No.2 Ramkumar Ramanathan will not be featuring in the event as he will playing in a Challenger event in Budapest, Hungary.

The 29-year old Gunneswaran is coming off a rather unsuccessful display against Italy in the Davis Cup Qualifier in Kolkata. He would be keen to make amends and head into the long season ahead possibly with a title.

Gunneswaran did well to qualify for the Australian Open before falling to Frances Tiafoe in the first round and with his ranking hovering close to the 100-mark, a title-winning run here would prove to be a huge boost after the disappointing losses in the Davis Cup tie.

Union Minister KJ Alphons has said that the country's tourism sector fetched 234 billion US Dollar revenue last year, registering a growth of over 19%.

Delivering the inaugural speech at the 2nd ASEAN-India Youth Summit in Guwahati yesterday, he said the country is ranked third in the tourism sector, according to the 2018 report of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

The minister said, this revenue was contributed by 87 per cent domestic and 13 per cent foreign tourists.

The budget sessions of the Himachal Pradesh and Odisha assemblies will begin today. Speaker Rajeev Bindal of Himachal assembly said the session will commence with the governor's address, which will be followed by obituary references the same day. 

He said the discussion on the governor's address will be held from tomorrow till Thursday. Speaker said the Jai Ram Thakur government will present its budget for 2019-20 on Saturday. 

In Odisha assembly, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera will present interim budget on 7th of February in the house. The session, which will have 7 working days, will end on the 12th of this month. 

Private sector lender Yes Bank on February 1 announced that its senior group president and head (retail and business banking) resigned on January 31.

The bank added that he will serve notice till close of business hours on March 31. Mondal has been with the bank since 2012.

"Yes Bank thanks Mondal for his commitment, leadership and contribution to the bank and wishes him all the success in his future endeavours," said the bank in a statement.

The bank recently named Ravneet Gill as its new MD and CEO. Former CEO Rana Kapoor demitted office on January 31 and Ajai Kumar will be the interim chief till Gill takes over.

At 12.04pm, Yes Bank's stock was down 1.83 percent on BSE and was trading at Rs 190.75 a piece.

Qatar won its first major soccer title by beating four-time champion Japan 3-1 in the Asian Cup final on Friday, completing an improbable run to glory for the Gulf nation as it prepares to host the 2022 World Cup. After upsetting one of the tournament favorites, players wrapped themselves in Qatari flags in a display of patriotic furor that will have resonated far beyond the field in Abu Dhabi.

Since joining other Arab countries in cutting ties with Doha in 2017, the United Arab Emirates warned residents that expressing sympathy for Qatar could lead to fines and imprisonment. The UAE is among a quartet of nations accusing its regional foe of supporting extremists, which Qatar denies.

There was even an attempt by the UAE to get Qatar disqualified after losing their semifinal. Tournament organizers confirmed only hours before the final they dismissed a challenge by the UAE against the eligibility of two Qatar players who were born outside Qatar.

Vani Kapoor became the first Indian to earn a card for the Australian Ladies PGA Tour (LPGA) after coming through its first-ever Qualifying Tournament at the Ballarat Golf Club in Ballarat, Australia.

Vani shot rounds of 71, 78 and 69 to finish at two-over 218 and was tied-12th with three others. The top-20 from a field of 81 earned playing rights on the Australian LPGA but there were many other benefits and spots available too.

Other Indian girls in the Australian LPGA Qualifying were Diksha Dagar (tied-30th with round of 79-73-72); Astha Madan (tied-37th with cards of 75-78-73) and Ridhima Dilawari (tied-57th with cards of 76-79-76).

Russia denounced Washington's decision to leave a landmark Cold War nuclear missile treaty on Friday.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, US exit was not a question of Russia's guilt but is instead the strategy of the United States to get out of its international legal obligations in different areas. 

US President Donald Trump had earlier said the United States was suspending its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

In a huge relief to a number of students who fail to qualify to enter into prestigious institutions like IITs due to negative marking, Madras High Court ruled against negative marking in competitive examinations saying they are bad in law. 

Accepting the petitioner's argument that negative marking is not prevailing anywhere else in the world, the  Judge said it acts only as "a bolt in the brain development" of students and prevents them from making intelligent guesses. 

Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the current government has focussed to take development to all the sections of the society. In an exclusive interview with All India Radio yesterday, Goyal said this government respects the middle class and and has ensured that their family budgets are in control. He further said that with demonetisation and anti-black money drive, the government tax collection has gone up.
    
Talking about the railways, Goyal said that more than 50 million tonnes of extra loading on the freight corridor has been done this year which is a big achievement for the Indian Railways.

Prime Minister  Narendra Modi will visit Durgapur in West Bengal  today. According to an official release,   Mr Modi  will dedicate to the nation, the Railway electrification of 294 kilometre long Andal- Sainthia-Pakur-Malda  and Khana- Sainthia Sections. 

Electrification of this section will enable ease of transportation of coal, stone chips and ballast to North and North East India in a seamless manner. During the visit, He will also dedicate the twenty kilometre long Hijli- Narayangarh third line to the nation