In Men's Hockey, India beat Russia 4 - 2 in first leg of Tokyo Olympics Qualifiers at Bhubaneswar in Odisha. Mandeep Singh's brace and goals from Harmanpreet Singh and Sunil steered India to a comfortable victory over Russia in Friday's match. Andrey Kuraev and Semen Matkovskiy scored one goal each for Russia. India captain Manpreet Singh was adjudged Player of the Match.
   
Earlier, Indian women's team took giant leap towards Olympic qualification with a near-flawless performance to hammer United States of America 5-1 in the first-leg of the two-match FIH Qualifier. Dragflicker Gurjit Kaur struck brace while Lilima Minz, Sharmila Devi and Navneet Kaur were the other scorers. USA's consolation goal came from a penalty stroke converted by Erin Matson.

Six-time world champion M C Mary Kom has been included in a 10-strong athlete ambassadors group to represent boxers in the build-up to next year's Tokyo Olympic Games by the IOC's Task Force for the sport.

Mary Kom will represent the Asian bloc in the group, which also comprises two-time Olympic and world gold-medallist Vasyl Lamachenko and five-time world champion and 2016 Olympic gold-winner Julio Cesar La Cruz among others.
 
The 36-year-old Indian recently surpassed herself as the most successful boxer in the history of the world championships when she claimed her eighth medal, a bronze, at the marquee event's latest edition in Russia. 

Indian women grappler Pooja Gehlot (53kg) has entered the finals after beating Turkey's Zeynep Yetgil in the semifinals of the UWW Under-23 World Championships 2019 in Budapest last night.

Pooja defeated Yetgil, a gold medallist at the Junior European Wrestling Championships in 2018. In the summit clash today, Pooja will be up against Haruno Okuno of Japan. No Indian has ever won a gold in the last three editions of the UWW Under-23 World Championships.

Veteran CPI leader and former lok Sabha Member Gurudas Dasgupta passed away this morning in Kolkata following a prolonged illness. The veteran CPI leader was suffering from kidney and heart related ailments for quite some time.

Dasgupta became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1985. He was also elected to the Lok Sabha from Panskura and Ghatal constituencies of West Bengal in 2004 and 2009 respectively.

As a parliamentarian he was known for his oratory skills and his speeches earned praise from politicians, cutting across party lines.

In 2014, he decided not to contest Lok Sabha polls due to poor health.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Thailand from 2nd to 4th November to participate in the 16th ASEAN-India summit, 14th East Asia summit and 3rd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
 
Briefing the media in New Delhi today, MEA Secretary (East), Vijay Thakur Singh said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will visit Bangkok on the invitation of the Prime Minister of Thailand. She said, ASEAN-related summits are an important part of our diplomacy. She informed that as his first engagement, Prime Minister will address the Indian community on 2nd November at National Indoor Stadium in Bangkok. 

Indian pugilists Shiva Thapa and Pooja Rani today clinched gold medals, while Ashish settled for a silver, ending India's brilliant campaign at the Olympic Test Event for Boxing in Tokyo, Japan.

Four-time Asian medallist Thapa outpunched Kazakhstan's national champion and Asian bronze-winner Sanatali Toltayev 5-0 to claim the top honours in 63 kilogram category.

Former Asian Games bronze-medallist  Pooja Rani edged past Australia's Caitlin Parker in 75 kilogram category to ensure that the Indian women's contingent also had a gold in its kitty. In 69 kilogram category, Ashish, however, lost to Japan's Sewon Okazawa to sign off with a silver medal.

Former world bronze-winner Shiva Thapa in  63kg category and Pooja Rani 75 kg category enter the finals of Olympic Test event for boxing in Tokyo today. 

Thapa, a four-time Asian medalist defeated Japan's Daisuke Narimatsu in a split verdict in semifinals.
 
Rani, a former Asian Games bronze-medallist, got the better of Brazil's Beatriz Soares in a unanimous decision. Rani had won a silver medal at the Asian Championships earlier this year.

However, former junior world champion Nikhat Zareen (51kg) and Vahlimpuia (75kg), in the men's draw, lost their respective semifinal bouts to end with bronze medals.

Radha Krishna Mathur took oath as the first Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh this morning. He was administered the oath of office by the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gitta Mittal at a function held at Sindhu Sanskriti Kendra in Leh. AIR correspondent reports that the swearing in ceremony of the Left Governor Radha Krishna Mathur was witnessed by galaxy of prominent citizens of both Leh and Kargil.

Live broadcast by the DD Kashir has facilitated for those people in remote areas of Ladakh to witness at their home. People are saying that new era of governance in Ladakh has began from today onwards. Jubilant people are expressing happiness for realizing their long cherished demand of UT and expecting Ladakh Union Territory as ideal one in the country by harnessing its uniqueness in resources, culture heritage , sport and agricultural potential and many more. Later, Justice Mittal will fly to Srinagar where she will to administer the Oath of Office to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor-designate Girish Chandra Murmu.

Three Indian-origin CEOs have been featured in a list of world's top 10 best-performing chief executives.

'The Best-Performing CEOs in the World, 2019' list compiled by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) features 100 CEOs and has been topped by American technology company NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang.

Among the top 10 chief executives on the list, three spots have been occupied by the Indian-origin CEOs.

On the 6th spot is Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, followed by MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, ranked 7th and Microsoft chief Satya Nadella on the 9th spot. The list also features India-born CEO of DBS Bank Piyush Gupta on the 89th spot. Apple CEO Tim Cook is ranked 62nd.

In cricket, Bangladesh Test and T20 Captain Shakib Al Hasan has been banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from all cricket for two years. One year of the punishment has been suspended after he accepted three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. This was announced today in a press release issued by the ICC.

Shakib was found guilty for not reporting to the ICC that he was approached by the bookies. He was approached by the bookies during the home tri-series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka last year in January. He was approached a second time during the same series. Bookies approached him during the Indian Premier League match between Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab in April 2018.