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.

Pakistan on Thursday announced that it will send its first astronaut to space in 2022 using ally China's satellite launching facilities. 

Pakistan's decision came as India on Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2. 

Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Science and Technology, said the selection process of the astronaut for the space mission would start from February 2020.

"Proud to announce that selection process for the first Pakistani to be sent to Space shall begin from February 2020. Fifty people will be short listed. The list will then come down to 25 and in 2022 we will send our first person to space. This will be the biggest space event of our country," Mr Chaudhry said in a tweet. 

A Chinese startup successfully launched the country’s first commercial rocket capable of carrying satellites into orbit Thursday, as the space race between China and the US heats up.

Beijing-based Interstellar Glory Space Technology -- also known as iSpace -- said it launched two satellites into orbit around 1:00 pm Beijing time (0500 GMT) from Jiuquan, a state launch facility in the Gobi desert.

The three-year-old company is one of dozens of Chinese rivals jostling for a slice of the global space industry, estimated to be worth about $1 trillion by 2040 according to Morgan Stanley.

The sector is currently dominated by SpaceX and Blue Origin in the US.

The Lok Sabha today passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage), Bill, 2019 commonly known as Triple Talaq bill by voice vote. 

Replying to the debate on the Bill, Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was important to bring in a law banning instant triple talaq as the practice has continued despite a Supreme Court verdict passed in 2017. 

Mr Prasad said, despite Supreme Court’s direction against the Triple Talaq, the practice is still continuing in different parts of the country. Several hundred cases have been reported. 

The 20th Anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas is being celebrated today. The day is named after the successful Operation Vijay in 1999, when India regained the control of the high outposts which had been stealthily taken over by Pakistan. 

The Kargil war was fought for more than 60 days and ended with India regaining control of all the previously held territory. The central theme of this year's celebrations is ‘Remember, Rejoice and Renew’. On the occasion, President Ram Nath Kovind, who is also the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, will lay wreath at Cinar Corps Headquarters, Badamibag at Srinagar. President's earlier programme of paying homage to war soldiers at Dras was cancelled due to bad weather.

The Modi government on Wednesday reshuffled over a dozen Secretaries.

A 1984 batch IAS officer and currently Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ajay Kumar Bhalla has been appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Ministry of Home Affairs with immediate effect. He will take over as Home Secretary from incumbent Rajive Gauba.

Mr. Bhalla will have a fixed two-year tenure as Union Home Secretary till August 2021.

In another significant change, Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Economic Affairs, and designated as Secretary, Finance, in the Ministry of Finance, has been shifted to the Power Ministry as Secretary, while Gujarat cadre IAS officer Atanu Chakraborty has been made new Economic Affairs Secretary.

Asian Development Bank has sanctioned 1,925 crore rupees project for upgradation of power generation and distribution in Tripura.

Deputy Chief Minister and Power Minister Jishnu Dev Varma told reporters in Agartala that the amount was recently sanctioned to the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited after the state government had sought the ADB's assistance.

Mr Varma said that the project has been sanctioned for upgrading capacity of 63 MW Rokhia Project to 120 MW at an estimated cost of over 699 crore and modernising Gumti Hydro Electric Project at an estimated cost of nearly 1225 crore rupees.

Rokhia project is located at West Tripura district whereas Gumti project is in Gomati district.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Indian origin Priti Patel as the country Home Secretary.

The Prime Minister named former Home Secretary Sajid Javid to take over from Philip Hammond as the Finance Secretary or Chancellor.

Mr Javid, a former banker from a modest background, was a contender for the premiership but endorsed Johnson when he failed to get enough support from fellow Conservative MPs.

Mr Johnson has also named Brexit hardliner Dominic Raab as the country's Foreign Secretary.