Mithun Manhas has become the 37th president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Manhas, the first person from Jammu and Kashmir to head the BCCI, was elected unopposed during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the board held at its headquarters in Mumbai on Sunday.

He’s the first uncapped player to have taken charge of the world’s richest cricket board.

Meanwhile, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia will continue in the post as will vice-president Rajeev Shukla. Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh’s Prabhtej Bhatia has taken over as the joint-secretary.

Former India spinner Raghuram Bhat has been appointed as the new treasurer.

Welcoming Manhas’ election, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh, attending the AGM as Punjab Cricket Association’s representative, said a cricketer at the helm of affairs of the Board was a positive step.

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, today successfully organised the Viksit Bharat Run 2025 across over 100 countries as part of the ongoing Seva Pakhwada. The Ministry in a statement, said that this marked the first-ever global edition of the initiative, aimed at inspiring collective action for nation-building. Organised under the tagline- Run to Serve the Nation, the event witnessed enthusiastic participation in three to five-kilometre community runs held at iconic and easily accessible locations across the world.

The Ministry said that runs were held in various cities including Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Bishkek, Brunei, Doha, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, Mandalay, Melbourne, Perth, Riyadh, Rome, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo. The Ministry added that as part of the event, participants took the Viksit Bharat Pledge and the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Pledge, expressing solidarity with India’s developmental journey. They also joined the plantation drive under Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam, underscoring the link between individual responsibility and environmental sustainability.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday announced that eight-day trade shows will be organised across all 75 districts of the state from October 9 to 16, where entrepreneurs will be provided free stalls to showcase and promote their products on a wider scale.

Khadi and Village Industries Minister Rakesh Sachan made this announcement during a seminar on Khadi for Nation, Khadi for Fashion held on the fourth day of the UP International Trade Show (UPITS) in Greater Noida, an official statement said.

Highlighting the significance of GST reforms, Rakesh Sachan stated that for the first time since the introduction of GST, such a large-scale relief has been implemented, bringing fresh momentum to the MSME sector.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today has approved the Construction of 4-lane Sahebganj-Areraj-Bettiah section of the NH-139W in Bihar on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) with a total project length of 78.942 km and total capital cost of Rs.3,822.31 crore.

The proposed four-lane greenfield project is to improve connectivity between the State Capital Patna with Bettiah connecting the North Bihar Districts of Vaishali, Saran, Siwan, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, East Champaran and West Champaran up to the areas along the Indo-Nepal border. The project will support the movement of long-distance freight traffic, improve access to key infrastructure and facilitate regional economic development by improving connectivity to agricultural zones, industrial areas, and cross-border trade routes.

The project will connect seven PM Gati Shakti economic Nodes, six Social Nodes, eight Logistic Nodes, nine Major Tourism and Religious Centers by improving access to key heritage and Buddhist tourist sites including the Kesariya Buddha Stupa (Sahebganj), Someshwarnath Mandir (Areraj), Jain Mandir and Vishwa Shanti Stupa (Vaishali), and Mahavir Temple (Patna), thereby strengthening the Buddhist circuit and international tourism potential of Bihar.

In a significant development, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has announced that natural gas has been discovered in the Andaman basin, confirming the long-held belief that the Andaman Sea is rich in natural gas. In a social media post last night, the Minister said, an ocean of energy opportunities has opened up in the Andaman Sea. Expressing happiness, Mr Puri informed about the occurrence of natural gas in the Sri Vijayapuram 2 well at a distance of 9.20 Nautical mile (17 km) from the shoreline on the east coast of the Andaman Islands at a water depth of 295 metres and target depth of 2,650 metres.

He said, initial production testing of the well in the range of 2212 – 2250 meters has established the presence of natural gas with intermittent flaring. He further stated that the gas samples were brought by ship to Kakinada, were tested and found to be 87 per cent methane. According to the Minister, the size of the gas pool and commercial viability of the discovery will get verified in the coming months but establishing the presence of hydrocarbons in the Andaman basin is a major step in confirming their long-held belief that Andaman basin is rich in natural gas, in line with discoveries in the entire area from Myanmar in North to Indonesia in the south in this belt.

States cannot impose taxes that discriminate against goods imported from other states compared with those manufactured within the state, unless there are special circumstances, the Supreme Court has held.

It has quashed a 2007 Rajasthan government notification that exempted certain manufacturers of asbestos cement within the state from a special value-added tax that applied to those supplying it from other states.

The government notification exempted Rajasthan companies that made asbestos cement sheets and bricks with a fly ash content of 25 per cent or more.

Asbestos cement manufacturers from Uttar Pradesh had challenged a Rajasthan High Court judgment of 2007 that upheld the constitutional validity of the state government order.

President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will launch the world’s first nuclear power system with a closed fuel cycle by 2030, at the World Atomic Week forum in Moscow.

Putin said that the system will reuse up to 95% of spent fuel, drastically cutting radioactive waste and easing uranium demand and called it one of Russia’s proudest scientific achievements.

The system is to be built in the Tomsk Region. Putin invited international scientists to join testing efforts at a new research centre in Ulyanovsk. He emphasised Russia’s rejection of technological colonialism, saying Moscow helps nations build independent nuclear programs, while maintaining high safety and non-proliferation standards.

Putin called it a breakthrough in clean energy and urged global cooperation and new financing models to expand nuclear power access worldwide.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order approving a proposal that would keep TikTok alive in the U.S. in a transaction that Vice President JD Vance said values the business at $14 billion.

The deal satisfies the requirements of a national security law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or face an effective ban in the country, according to the executive order. Under the terms, which China must still approve, a new joint-venture company will oversee TikTok’s U.S. business, with ByteDance retaining less than a 20% stake.

Enterprise tech giant Oracle, Silver Lake and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund will be main investors in TikTok’s U.S. business, controlling a roughly 45% stake in the entity, while ByteDance investors and new holders will own 35%, CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier Thursday.

In the AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers, India recorded their first-ever international futsal victory as they overpowered Mongolia 3-0 in the last Group A clash at Ardiya last evening. In a sport still taking its initial steps on the national front, this landmark result may well mark a turning point in Indian futsal. The star for India was Sean D’Souza, who netted a brace with goals in each half. Anmol Adhikari registered the third and final goal.

India had already been eliminated from the qualifiers following defeats against Kuwait and Australia. However, with the victory against Mongolia, India ended third in Group A.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) World Conservation Congress 2025 adopted a motion on Thursday recognising India’s first dugong conservation reserve in Tamil Nadu’s Palk Bay as a global model for marine biodiversity conservation.

The motion, proposed by the Omcar Foundation, received overwhelming support during electronic voting. Nearly 98% of countries and government agencies and 94.8% of NGOs, research institutions and organisations voted in favour.

“The adoption is a significant global recognition of TN’s pioneering step. It reaffirms its leadership in marine conservation across South Asia,” Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary, environment, forests and climate change department, told TNIE.