NEW DELHI: Former India spinner Ramesh Powar was today named head coach of the women's national team till the ICC World T20, scheduled to be held in November.

Powar's term will include a tour to Sri Lanka, a bilateral series in the West Indies in October followed by the ICC Women's World T20 in West Indies in November.

"The BCCI has appointed Mr.Ramesh Powar as Head Coach of the Indian Women's Team. Mr. Powar has now been handed over full-time duties till 30th November, 2018," the Board's secretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a statement.

The 40-year-old Mumbaikar was appointed interim coach of the team last month after the resignation of Tushar Arothe.

Under Powar, the members of the women's team underwent a camp at National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Mumbai: Former India cricket captain Ajit Wadekar, who led the team to path-breaking Test wins in England and the West Indies, passed away today after prolonged illness.

He was 77 and is survived by his wife Rekha, two sons and a daughter. Wadekar was brought to a hospital in South Mumbai today where he was declared dead on arrival.

His last rites will be performed on Friday, a member of the Wadekar family, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

"He had been critically unwell for some time and was seeking treatment for the same," read the statement from the Jaslok Hospital.

The aggressive batsman was a trailblazer in Indian cricket despite a mere 37 Test appearances, leading India to triumphs in England and the West Indies in 1971.

Wadekar scored 2,113 runs in his Test career, including one hundred, and was also the country's first ODI captain. He appeared in just two matches, though.

India lost both those ODIs against England, which prompted Wadekar to retire from international cricket in 1974.

International Master Nihal Sarin became the 53rd Grandmaster of India despite losing his final round game to Richard Rapport of Hungary in the ninth and final round of Abu Dhabi Masters here.

The 14-year-old Nihal tallied 5.5 points out of a possible nine and the final GM norm came the Kerala boy’s way with one round to spare.

Daniil Dubov of Russia won one of the strongest Asian open thanks to a better tiebreak with a splendid score of 7.5 points out of a possible nine. Anton Korobov of Ukraine and A R Salem Saleh of Uae matched Dubov on points but the Russian was ahead as the tie was resolved.

Aravindh Chithambaram lost to Salem Saleh in a keenly contested Sicilian game in the final round while Dubov accounted for Ivan CHeparinov of Georgia. The overnight sole leader Korobov was happy to get a draw as black against Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia.

NEW DELHI: 

Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai from Maharashtra were ranked India's three most livable places on the government's inaugural 'Ease of Living Index', where the national capital came at 65th place out of total 111 cities.

Rampur in Uttar Pradesh figured at the bottom of the livability index released by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. Chennai has been ranked 14th, while Kolkata did not participate in the survey. Kohima (Nagaland) and Patna (Bihar) were also placed in the bottom-three.

In the top-ten, the three cities from Maharashtra were followed by Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada and Bhopal.

Varanasi is at 33rd place, Ahmedabad at 23rd and Hyderabad at 27th.

This is the first-ever exercise undertaken by the ministry to rank the country's major cities on the basis of four parameters of ease of living - governance, social, economic and physical infrastructure.

The ministry said evaluation of cities has been done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators - institutional and social pillars carried 25 points each, 5 points were given for economic pillar and 45 points for the physical pillar.

No city from Uttar Pradesh or Tamil Nadu figured in the top-ten.

While Rampur is ranked the lowest, those in the bottom-ten also include Kohima, Patna, Bihar Sharif, Bhagalpur, Itanagar, Pasighat, Kavaratti, Saharanpur and Silvassa.

Srinagar is ranked 100th, Jammu at 95th, Panaji 90th, Aligarh 86th, Gurugram at 88th and Meerut is 101st. Ghaziabad is ranked 46th and Rai Bareli is at 49th.

Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Aug 13 (ANI): Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh along with Union Minister of State for Skill Development Anant Kumar Hegde flagged off fifteen Skill Chariots to launch the government's project of 'Skills on Wheels' in the state. Speaking at the event, CM Raman said that his state is the first among the 28 other states in the country to provide Right to Skills' Development to the youth.

Toronto (Canada), Aug 13 (ANI): 17-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal produced a rich vein of form as he thrashed Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to clinch his fourth Canadian Masters 1000 title at the Rogers Cup here in Toronto on Sunday.

The world number one swept aside Tsitsipas 6-2, 7-6 in a thrilling summit clash of the men's singles event that lasted one hour and 41 minutes. With the win, Nadal clinched his 80th ATP World Tour title and fifth victory of the year.
Heading into the clash, 19-year-old Tsitsipas-- who celebrated his birthday earlier in the day-- looked all set to upset another tennis giant but he failed to counter Nadal's steady and effective brand of tennis.
Earlier, Tsitsipas had pulled off one surprise after the other as he humbled the likes of Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and 13-time Grand slam champion Novak Djokovic in the previous three rounds. He also brushed aside Wimbledon runner-up Kevin Anderson to reach his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final in Toronto.

With the spectacular win, Nadal secured his record-extending 33rd Masters 1000 title. The Spaniard also became the fourth player in the Open Era to win 80 titles and is now behind the likes of Ivan Lendll, Roger Federer, and Jimmy Connors. (ANI

Santhali has become the first Indian tribal language to get a Wikipedia edition in its own script after the Santhali Wikipedia went live earlier this month.

“The Santhali Wikipedia got approval from the language committee of the Wikimedia Foundation on June 28 and went live on August 2,” said Jayanta Nath of the Indian chapter of Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia.

Wikipedia contributors from India, Bangladesh and Nepal generated the content to make this page possible, Nath said.

It presently has content of about 70,000 words.

Santhali is written in Ol Chiki script and spoken by 6.4 million people, according to the 2001 census, in India alone and its speakers live mostly in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. It is also spoken in Bangladesh and Nepal.

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will launch a defence industrial corridor in Aligarh tomorrow as part of the government's efforts to develop specialised zones dedicated to defence production in the state, a Defence Ministry statement said.

Six nodal points have been identified in state -- Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chitrakoot and Jhansi -- for the corridor.

"Stakeholder interactions have already been held in Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra and Jhansi and all the interactions have seen huge response from the industries in and around the locations," the statement added.