Indian Railways has approved two hundred twenty three crore rupees for Kavach 4.0 on more than 614 route kilometres of Varanasi Division of North Eastern Railway. The approved project will extend Kavach 4.0 coverage across the identified balance sections of Varanasi Division, strengthening the safety infrastructure available for train operations. The initiative will contribute to safer and more reliable train operations and support Indian Railways’ ongoing efforts to expand the deployment of indigenous Kavach technology across its network.

Kavach is an indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection system designed to enhance operational safety. It helps prevent Signal Passing at Danger, automatically applies brakes when required and supports safer train movement by monitoring train operations.

ndian athlete Vithya Ramraj clinched the bronze medal in the women’s 400m hurdles at the Asian Games 2026 on Monday, clocking a personal best of 54.75 seconds and breaking a national record that had stood since 1984.
Vithya cleared all 10 hurdles to finish third in the final, producing a record-breaking performance in Aichi-Nagoya, according to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).

She broke the previous national record of 55.42 seconds, set by legendary Indian athlete PT Usha at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Vithya had earlier equalled the same mark in 2023.

Mariam Kareem of the UAE won the gold medal with a Games record time of 54.31 seconds, while Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems took silver after clocking 54.58 seconds.

In the Women’s Trap Team event at the Asian Games 2026, Indian shooters Neeru Dhanda, Aashima Ahlawat and Manisha Keer have won a silver medal. The Indian trio finished with a combined score of 328 points to secure the silver, finishing three points ahead of Kuwait, who took bronze with 325.

China won the gold medal with a score of 346. Neeru Dhanda was India’s top performer with a score of 118 out of 125, while Aashima and Manisha contributed 106 and 104, respectively. Neeru also finished joint-top in the individual qualifying round alongside Qatar’s Ray Bassil and will compete in the individual final later today.

In athletics, India secured a double podium finish in the men’s javelin throw. Yashvir Singh won the silver medal with a personal-best effort of 85.72 metres, while Rohit Yadav claimed bronze with a throw of 84.35 metres.

Bodhana Sivanandan has become the youngest player in history to earn the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) confirmed. The 11-year-old Indian-origin British player completed her third and final WGM norm at the recently concluded 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, while representing England.

The previous age record belonged to Russian Grandmaster Kateryna Lagno, who achieved the WGM title at 12. Former world champion Hou Yifan of China also earned the title at 12, and remains the youngest woman to have secured the full Grandmaster title, which she achieved at 14.

Having taken the top board for England’s women’s team, Bodhana led from the front. She won six games, registering 8.0/11 to help England finish 15th in the women’s section. On Board 1, the pre-teen was the 13th best player of the tournament.

The Indian women’s kabaddi team clinched gold after beating Iran at the 2026 Asian Games. The Indian women went on an unbeaten run throughout their campaign. The dominant Indian side edged out Iran in a tense final clash at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium in Aichi-Nagoya, winning the contest by a 37-34 margin.

The gold medal triumph was India’s third of the ongoing Asiad competition, following the women’s cricket team and the shooting pair of Suruchi Singh Phogat and Kamaljeet in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on Friday.

India’s men’s kabaddi team will also face Iran in the final later today, aiming to complete a golden double.

The men had won seven straight Asian Games gold medals before their streak ended in 2018, but they reclaimed the title at the 2023 Hangzhou Games.

India’s Rishabh Das signed off the swimming events on Day 6 of the Asian Games 2026 by setting a new national record in the men’s 200m backstroke, clocking 1:58.77 to finish sixth in the final on Friday.

The 19-year-old bettered his own previous best of 1:59.84, which he had set earlier this year.

Rishabh had qualified for the final after finishing fourth in his heat, while compatriot Utkarsh Patil also made the final after finishing ninth overall in the heats. Utkarsh eventually finished seventh in the final with a time of 2:00.94, according to ESPN.

Rishabh's national record was one of the highlights of India's swimming campaign on Day 6, though the country did not add a medal from the pool.

Baranica Elangovan entered her name in the record books by winning a historic bronze medal for India in the women’s pole vault event at the Asian Games 2026 on Friday.

It was joint bronze medal for the 29-year-old Baranica along with Kazakhstan’s Polina Ivanova as they remained tied, with a best clearance of 4.15m each and the same number of failures at 4.25m.

Misaki Morota of Japan won the gold with a personal best effort of 4.55m while China’s Chunge Niu bagged the silver with 4.50m.

Baranica’s effort was below her personal best of 4.23m but good enough to secure a podium finish.

In March this year, Baranica cleared 4.22m at the National Indoor Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, setting a new national record. She improved her own record to 4.23m at the Indian Indoor Open Combined Events and Pole Vault competition in May.

Lalit Kala Akademi has announced the 20 Lalit Kala Akademi Awards at the 65th National Exhibition of Art. The Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, is organising the 65th National Exhibition of Art. This is one of the most prestigious annual exhibitions of contemporary visual art in India. The Ministry of Culture said that the Exhibition has received an overwhelming response from artists across India. They added that akademi received around six thousand artworks from more than two thousand artists representing 27 States and Union Territories. Awardees of the Exhibition of Art include the names of Chandra Shekhar Sain in Sculpture, Chandra Naskar in Painting Gopal, Pankaj Kumar Sharma in Drawing and Pritam Madhukar Deuskar in Printmaking. The Ministry highlighted that the Exhibition of Art is not only a platform for artistic recognition but also contributes to the strengthening of India’s creative economy. 

Team India secured 10th position at the 48th WorldSkills Competition, Shanghai 2026, winning 6 Silver Medals and 20 Medal for Excellence as the prestigious international skills competition concluded in Shanghai, China.

Improving upon its 13th-place finish at WorldSkills Lyon 2024, where India secured four Bronze Medals and 12 Medal for Excellence, the result marks an important milestone for the country’s skilled youth on the global stage.

The six Silver Medals at WorldSkills Shanghai were won by Smriti Nambiar in Bakery, Mohammed Salam in Dental Prosthetics; Kovid Ajay Gangrade in Digital Interactive Media Design, Parth Vohra in Industrial Design Technology, Mehrunissa Begum in Logistics and Freight Forwarding; and Saniya Joshi in Retail Sales. Their achievements span creative, technical and service-sector skills, reflecting the breadth of Indian talent on the global stage, as per the press release.

Elon Musk-backed SpaceX is set to launch its Starship rocket on its 14th test flight as early as Monday with the mission set to mark the spacecraft’s first attempt at an orbital flight. Taking to social media platform X, the company said that the 75-minute launch window was scheduled to open at 7:15 am, subject to regulatory approval.

SpaceX plans to livestream the launch on its official website with coverage expected to begin about 30 minutes before liftoff. The mission is designed to take Starship to an altitude of about 275 km, complete roughly six orbits and last nearly 10 hours before a targeted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile.