After a gap of four years, the Centre on Wednesday announced the awardees for the prestigious Gandhi Peace Prize for 2015 to 2018.

While Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, won the award for 2015 for rural development and education, for 2016, the award has been jointly given to Akshaya Patra Foundation for providing mid-day meals to children across the country and Sulabh International for its work towards emancipation of manual scavengers, the Ministry of Culture announced. For 2017, the award has been given to Ekai Abhiyan Trust for its contribution to education for rural and tribal children and for 2018, to WHO Goodwill Ambassador Yohei Sasakawa for his role in leprosy eradication.

The Gandhi Peace Prize, which is given to individuals and institutions for their contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods, was last conferred upon the Indian Space Research Organisation in 2014.

This is the first time that the awardees of four years have been announced together ever since the award was instituted in 1995. As per the code of procedure on the Ministry of Culture’s website, the award should ideally be announced on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, each year. An official of the Ministry of Culture, the nodal agency which receives proposals for conferring the award, said nominations were made during the last four years for the award, but an approval was awaited.

Delhi judokas proved to be a cut above the rest as the northern state ended up with 12 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze medals to top in the discipline at the Khelo India Youth Games in Pune. The closest to Delhi was Punjab, which won 4 gold, while Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and hosts Maharashtra bagged three gold medals each in judo at the Games.

Delhi’s dominance primarily came in the Under-17 and Under-21 girls’ section, where they won eight of the 12 gold medals at stake, a media release said. A shot in the arm for judo was that 22 of the 29 participating states won medals. According to the release, judo was dominated by the states from the north as nine states from the region won 22 gold, 17 silver and 24 bronze medals.

In comparison, states from the southern India could not muster even one gold.

However, the surprise pack was Kerala which cornered eight medals – two silver and six bronze. From the east, Manipur remained the flag-bearer with Youth Olympics silver medallist and Asian Championship gold winner Tababi Devi Thangjam (Below-52kgs) and Maibam Indubala Devi (Below78 kgs) leading from the front.

National space agency ISRO has scheduled its first launch this year on Thursday next week. PSLV C-44 will lift off from the spaceport Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, carrying a student satellite called Kalamsat and an imaging satellite known as Microsat-R. One of the specialities of the mission this time would be the configuration of the rocket. It will carry only two strap-on motors by the sides of the first fuel stage at the bottom. 

This is the first time the launch vehicle is built in this configuration, known as PSLV-DL. Furthermore, after parking the satellites in the intended orbits, the fourth stage of the rocket will be taken to a circular orbit in space for carrying out certain experiments by the scientists. Normally, the fourth stage would be deserted in space after the injection of the satellites. This time, it will be kept 'live' for carrying out innovative studies.

The Women and Child Development Ministry have shortlisted 26 children for the national award this year for their bravery, social service and exceptional achievement in the fields of innovation, sports and arts. 

The National Selection Committee, under the Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, finaliSed the names of awardees for Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019. An official release said a total of 783 applications were received for Baal Shakti Puruskar. The Committee also finalised the names of two individuals and three institutions for Bal Kalyan Puraskar.

Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly survived a vote of no-confidence in Parliament on Wednesday, but that did little to quell the turmoil gripping the British government over her plan to leave the European Union, coming a day after she suffered a historic defeat on that proposal.

The House of Commons voted 325-306 to reject the opposition motion of no confidence. A day earlier, it dealt May a defeat on her painstakingly negotiated agreement for Brexit, or the process of exiting the bloc.

Had it been successful, the no-confidence motion almost certainly would have ousted May and probably have forced a general election, adding layers of uncertainty in a country fast approaching the March 29 date for leaving the European Union.

Ordinarily, a prime minister would be expected to resign after suffering a big defeat on a signature bill. The vote of 432-202 against May’s Brexit plan was by far the biggest loss for a government on a major issue in modern times.

But Brexit has rewritten the rules of British politics. Once again May, the leader of the Conservative Party, lived to fight another day.

More than 100 lawmakers from her party who had opposed her Brexit bill voted to support her government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a three-day visit to Gujarat from today. Upon his arrival, Mr Modi will first inaugurate the 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show' in Gandhinagar. An official release said the event is an integral part of the ninth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit which the Prime Minister will inaugurate tomorrow. The Trade Show will showcase more than 25 industrial and business sectors under one umbrella.

Mr Modi will also dedicate to the nation the newly-constructed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Ahmedabad today. It is a state of the art, the super-speciality public hospital built by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and is equipped with all modern amenities, including an air ambulance. 

Mr Modi will also inaugurate the Ahmedabad Shopping Festival at Sabarmati River Front. It is the first event of its kind in India which will provide an opportunity for city enterprises to showcase their products. The Prime Minister would address gatherings at both the places.

Mr Modi will inaugurate the three-day Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit tomorrow morning. The summit provides a platform for brainstorming on agendas of global socio-economic development, knowledge sharing and forging effective partnerships. The theme of the Summit is 'Youth Connect 2019: Shaping A New India - The Story of Billion Dreams'. Fifteen countries including Australia, Canada, France and Japan have agreed to be partner countries this year.

On Saturday, the Prime Minister visit Hazira industrial area near Surat to mark the setting up of the Hazira Gun Factory. From Hazira, Mr Modi will head to Silvassa, the capital of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. 

There, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for various projects. The Prime Minister will also go to Mumbai on Saturday. He will inaugurate the new building of the National Museum of Indian Cinema.

Malayalam director-screenwriter Lenin Rajendran passed away in Chennai on Monday. He was 67.

Rajendran was undergoing treatment for a liver ailment at Apollo hospital in Chennai.

Lenin Rajendran made his directorial debut with 1982 film Venal. He went on to helm films like Swathi Thirunal, Daivathinte Vikrithikal, Kulam, Rathri Mazha and Makaramanju. His last directorial was the 2016 film Edavappathy.

Sharing the news on Twitter, Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty wrote, “Ace Malayalam director who made some inspiring movies #LeninRajendran is no more…such a sad loss! He had so many ideas and we were in sync at many issues concerning Chitranjali Studio…everything left unaccomplished!You will remain in our memories, May your Soul Reat In Peace.”

Mohammed Ali Qamar, the man who won India's first Commonwealth Games gold medal in boxing, has taken over as chief coach for the country's women pugilists, becoming the youngest ever to get the top job. Ali Qamar, who turns 38 in a couple of months' time, was appointed to the position on Monday night, replacing veteran Shiv Singh. Ali Qamar has been an assistant coach in the national camp for more than a year.

In addition, the Arjuna awardee has helmed the Railways Sports Promotion Board's women's team for more than three years. "It has come as a bit of surprise to me, I got to know only last night and I am thankful to the Boxing Federation of India for considering me worthy enough for the position," Ali Qamar, whose history-making CWG gold came in the 2002 Manchester edition in the light flyweight category, told PTI in an interview.

The diminutive Kolkata native will be working alongside Italian coach Raffaele Bergamasco and will have seven assistant coaches in his team, including superstar M C Mary Kom's trainer Chhote Lal Yadav.
The man he succeeds is well past 60 and there were murmurs of a possible change in the women's camp after the BFI named a 39-year-old C A Kuttappa as the chief coach for the men's camp. India's previous chief coaches for women -- Anoop Kumar and Gurbax Singh Sandhu -- were well over 50 when they took over.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development Tuesday approved a proposal to extend the seventh pay commission recommendations to academic staff of government and aided technical institutions with granting of Rs 1,241 crore for the purpose.

"This will directly benefit a total of 29,264 teachers and other academic staff of state government funded institutes. Besides, about 3.5 lakh teachers and other academic staff of private colleges or institutions within the purview of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) will also benefit from the approval," Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.

Karnataka swimmer Srihari Nataraj has emerged as the most prolific gold medal winner at the Khelo India Youth Games. He has won 7 Gold medals. With SP Likith, picking five, the Karnataka duo were the most decorated gold medalists of the Games.

In Shooting, Patiala-based Sartaj Singh defeated National Junior Champion Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar of Madhya Pradesh and won the gold medal in the 50-metres rifle-3 position event.

In the Under-21 Boys hockey played in Mumbai, Odisha were crowned as champions. Maharashtra continues to be way ahead in the medals tally. The hosts have, so far, bagged a total of 177 medals - 64 Gold, 51 Silver and 62 Bronze.

Delhi is at the second spot with 121 medals - 47 Gold, 31 Silver and 43 Bronze, while Haryana is placed third with 110 medals - 37 Gold, 35 Silver and 38 Bronze.