The Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) on Wednesday announced that Bahrain will host the fourth edition of the Asian Youth Para Games from December 1 to 10 next year.

An estimated 800 athletes under 20 years of age are expected to compete in nine sports including athletics, badminton, powerlifting, swimming and table tennis.

The competition will take place across numerous venues in Khalifa Sports City, a multi-use stadium in Isa Town, and Isa Sports City, the national indoor facility.

APC President Majid Rashed said: “The APC’s new vision is to ‘Make for an inclusive Asia through Para-sport’ and I can think of no better place to start achieving that than with the region’s youth.

Former Supreme Court judge DK Jain has been given a one-year extension by the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) to serve as BCCI's Ethics Officer and Ombudsman. He was initially appointed by the Supreme Court in February 2019 as BCCI's Ombudsman and later on handed the role of Ethics Officer. Jain's term had ended in the last week of February.

"Yes, my contract has been extended for a period of 12 months and I formally took over last week after sending my consent," he confirmed to IANS. "I am yet to start the proceedings. There was a gap of two months in between and thus I will have to look at the pending matters and decide future course of action accordingly," he added.

Veteran journalist and freedom fighter Dinu Ranadive passed away on Tuesday. He was 95.

Ranadive was widely respective throughout his career and even after for his investigative journalism, relentless coverage of social movements, and activism for the downtrodden. His wife Savita had passed away exactly a month ago on May 16. She was a school teacher and a union activist.

Ranadive started his career as the founder-editor of Samyukta Maharashtra Patrika in the 1950s, which had a lasting impact on the movement for the unification of Maharashtra as a State based on language. He then did exemplary reporting on the Goa Freedom Struggle in 1961.

Lt Gen (retd) Raj Mohan Vohra, who was a 1971 war hero and a Maha Vir Chakra awardee, has died due to COVID-19, senior officials said on Tuesday. He was 88.

The decorated officer breathed his last on June 14, they said.

"He was admitted initially to a private hospital for stent procedure. He died on June 14 due to COVID-19 infection," a senior official said.

His cremation was held on Sunday, the officials said.

Then a lieutenant colonel, Vohra commanded the elite Hodson's Horse in the Shakargarh Sector during the Indo-Pak War of 1971 and was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for his conspicuous bravery and leadership.

During the Battle of Basantar, the regiment came under heavy fire from the enemy and faced huge resistance, but 27 enemy tanks were destroyed under his able command, the officials said.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday said that it has engaged 57.13 lakh workers under the MGNREGS, thereby emerging as the top state in the country to give employment under the rural employment guarantee scheme.

Briefing mediapersons here, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said that Uttar Pradesh now accounts for 18 per cent of the total workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the country and has generated 7.93 crore man-days.

“These 57.13 lakh workers are engaged across 56,981 panchayats out of the total 58,000 panchayats. During a meeting to review the lockdown and coronavirus situation, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered to provide MGNREGA jobs to 10 lakh more people,” Awasthi said, adding that UP is followed by Rajasthan, which has engaged 53.45 lakh workers. Andhra Pradesh with 36 lakh workers and West Bengal with 26 lakh and Madhya Pradesh with 23.95 lakh workers are the other states with high MGNREGA employment.

Now, your Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) claims can be processed faster as the retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has launched a multi-location claim settlement facility to expedite member claims. Till now, EPF claims were processed based on jurisdiction of the establishment.

With the launch of the new facility, EPFO offices will be allowed to settle online claims from any of its regional offices across the country, the labour ministry said in a statement. All types of online claims i.e. provident fund, pension, partial withdrawal and claims and transfer claims can be processed under this new initiative, the retirement body mentioned.

Worth mentioning here is that operations at 135 regional offices were affected with different levels of severity due to the Covid induced lockdown. The ministry said it was observed that though many offices in Mumbai, Thane, Haryana and Chennai zones operate with even less than skeletal staff on account of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a disproportionate increase in claim receipt due to recently introduced COVID-19 advance.

Due to this, claim pendency in these offices rose to higher levels leading to delay in claim settlement cycle. Meanwhile, other EPFO offices which were operating with 50% workforce settled Covid-19 advance claims within three days with the help of auto settlement mode. 

India joined the league of leading economies including USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France and others to launch the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), yesterday.

In collaboration with partners and international organizations, GPAI will bring together leading experts from industry, civil society, governments, and academia to collaborate to promote responsible evolution of Artificial Intelligence. It will also evolve methodologies to show how Artificial Intelligence can be leveraged to better respond to the present global crisis around COVID-19.

By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.

GPAI is a first initiative of its type for evolving better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around Artificial Intelligence using the experience and diversity of participating countries.

An earthquake of 5.3 magnitude shook parts of Gujarat at 8:13 PM last night. The epicentre of the tremor was located near Bhachau in Kutch district. In Kutch, Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Patan, many people rushed out of their houses. There is no report of any major damage to property or loss of life. However, some houses in Kutch
and adjoining districts developed cracks.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held telephonic conversation with collectors of Kutch, Rajkot and Patan districts that are located close to the epicentre of the quake. He directed the collectors to report damage, if any, and activate the disaster management cell.

Veteran Urdu poet Anand Mohan Zutshi Gulzar Dehlvi passed away Friday, less than a week after recovering from the novel coronavirus. He was 93.

“His corona test came negative on June 7 and we brought him home. Today he had lunch and at around 2.30pm, and after that he passed away,” his son Anoop Zutshi told PTI. “He was quite old, and the infection had left him very weak. So doctors are thinking it was possible a cardiac arrest,” he added.