Australian Graham Reid’s appointment as the men’s national team chief coach till the end of 2020 was ratified on Monday after Hockey India received necessary clearance from the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Reid’s appointment was more or less certain after Hockey India recommended his name to the SAI last month.

It has been learnt that Reid has been handed a term till the end of next year but his tenure can be extended till 2022 FIH World Cup depending upon his performance.

According to a Hockey India official, Reid is expected to draw a salary of USD 15,000 per month and will be shifting base to Bengaluru with his family.

Korean Air’s chairman, whose leadership included scandals such as his daughter’s infamous incident of “nut rage,” has died due to illness, the company said Monday.

Cho Yang-ho had been indicted on multiple charges, including embezzlement and tax evasion, and his death came less than two weeks after a shareholder vote to remove the 70-year-old from the company’s board over a series of scandals surrounding the ruling family.

The company said Cho died in the United States but did not specify his illness or provide other details in its statement on his death. Cho had remained chairman, which is a non-board role, even after shareholders ousted him from the board. He had expressed his intent to continue participating in management.

Every time the green-yellow garbage van approaches the Anuradha Nagar slums on the outskirts of Indore, 10-year-old Jeetu Goswami runs through the narrow lanes, a half-broken bucket and a tub in his hands. “Sukha kachra isme hai (Dry waste is here),” he says, pointing to the bucket.

Starting 7 am every day, Bollywood singer Shaan’s voice booms through the van’s loudspeaker — ‘Indore hua hai number one, Indore rahega number one’ — as ragpickers in the slum empty their buckets in the truck’s separate compartments for wet and dry waste. “Earlier I used to throw it in the drain. Now someone wants to clean even a ragpicker’s house,” says Bablu Giri, pointing to his prized investment — two dustbins worth Rs 50 each.

In 2019, Indore struck a hat-trick for the cleanest city under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). For Indore Municipal Corporation’s (IMC) zonal in-charge Monesh Gawade, nothing illustrates the success better than the change in attitude of the slum and its children. “If their parents are not around, these children come to throw dry and wet waste,” he says.

Coca-Cola is set to its launch sports drink Powerade in India within the next two months, a move to compete with PepsiCo's Gatorade, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The beverage giant will introduce the drink in India just before the ICC World Cup, sources told the paper.

Powerade is currently available in India only through imports, and Coca-Cola is planning to launch a locally-made version in India, the report added.

All India Football Federation president Praful Patel has become the first Indian to be elected as a member of the FIFA Executive Council. He got 38 out of 46 votes.

Mr Patel was one of the eight candidates vying for the spot in the election which was held during the 29th Asian Football Confederations Congress in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The membership in the council will be for four years, from 2019 to 2023.

The biannual Army Commanders’ Conference will begin in New Delhi today. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver her opening address at the conference. 

During the conference, important issues that are likely to be discussed are the management of the extant security dynamics, mitigation of future security threats and enhancement of combat edge over potential adversaries. 

Other issues like infrastructure development for capacity enhancement along the Northern borders, review of strategic railway lines, optimization of a limited budget to ensure making up of critical deficiency in ammunition and welfare of troops will be discussed. 

According to an official release, the Conference, chaired by Chief of the Army Staff is held biannually for formulating important policy decisions. It is an important event for the planning and execution process of the Indian Army.

Private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd on Friday said that its board has approved a merger with mortgage financier Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd in an all stock deal. The merged entity, to be called Indiabulls Lakshmi Vilas Bank, will be among the top eight private banks in India by size and profitability, Indiabulls Housing Finance said in a filing with stock exchanges.

The share swap ratio for the merger has been fixed at 1:014, which means that for every 100 shares of LVB held by shareholders, they will be entitled to receive 14 shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance, according to the exchange filing.

As of 31 December, LVB operated 569 branches and 1,046 ATMs across 19 states and one Union territory. Indiabulls Housing Finance is involved in providing home loans, loan against property to retail customer including MSMEs and businesses, lease-rental discounting and construction finance through a network of branches spread across 18 states and three Union territories.

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co and Chinese technology firm Tencent Holdings have signed a preliminary deal to develop software for driverless vehicles, South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Saturday.

Both companies plan to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars, which Hyundai seeks to roll out commercially by 2030, the report, which cited unnamed industry sources, said.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a business forum held in Seoul on April 4 by the South Korean government and China's Guangdong province, it said.

Hyundai and Tencent did not offer any immediate comments on the report.

The two companies are also exploring ways to utilise Tencent's popular WeChat messaging app in developing China-targeted car models, the newspaper said.

A deadly disease affecting amphibians has descended into a global pandemic and it has already wiped out 90 species.  This was disclosed by a prominent US biologist  Jonathan Kolby, at the World Organisation for Animal Health Aquatic Conference in Santiago, Chile yesterday. The disease attacks the skin of frogs, toads and other amphibians. 

As the creatures use their skin to breathe and regulate their bodies' water levels, the damage caused by the disease eventually leads to heart failure and death.

Over the past five years, the highly contagious disease has already caused nearly 90 species to disappear, with over 500 impacted.
 . 
Amphibians play a major role in maintaining aquatic environmental quality. They also feed on mosquitoes, which carry human diseases such as malaria and the Zika virus. 

Japan's space agency has said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft released an explosive onto an asteroid to make a crater on its surface and collect underground samples to find possible clues to the origin of the solar system. 

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said in Tokyo that Hayabusa2 dropped a "small carry-on impactor" made of copper onto the asteroid and safely evacuated and remained intact. JAXA is analyzing further details. 

Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a tiny flat surface on the boulder-rich asteroid in February, when the spacecraft also collected some surface dust and small debris.