Around 1,400 top para athletes from around the country are competing at the Khelo India Para Games 2023, which began in New Delhi on Sunday. The inaugural KIPG will go on till December 17.

So far, Haryana top the KIPG 2023 medal tally with 35 gold, 37 silver and 19 bronze medals. Uttar Pradesh are second on the medal table with 24 gold, 18 silver and nine bronze.

KIPG 2023 is the latest addition to the government of India’s Khelo India initiative, which also includes the Khelo India Youth Games, Khelo India University Games and Khelo India Winter Games.

So far, five Khelo India Youth Games, three Khelo India University Games and three Khelo India Winter Games have been successfully conducted under the Khelo India initiative, which seeks to nurture the sporting culture in the country at grassroots level. The programme, run by the Government of India since 2017, has garnered widespread success and support from every nook and corner of the country.

Leander Paes, who won 18 Grand Slam titles in men’s doubles or mixed doubles, and ex-player, broadcaster and promoter Vijay Amritraj are the first Asian men elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

The Hall, which is based in Newport, Rhode Island, and has been around since 1955, announced its Class of 2024 on Wednesday. Also being inducted next year: Richard Evans, a British journalist and historian, who was selected in the Contributor Category.

Amritraj, also chosen in the Contributor Category, and Paes, who enters in the Player Category, are India’s first members of the shrine. It is the 28th nation to be represented.

In a surprising turn of events, Hardik Pandya has on Friday been announced as Mumbai Indians' captain for IPL 2024, thus replacing the franchise's long-serving captain Rohit Sharma.

Last month, Pandya said he returned to his “spiritual home” Mumbai Indians after an all-cash deal trade-off with Gujarat Titans was formally completed following 72 hours of intense drama.

Pandya was picked by Gujarat Titans before 2022 auction from the list of available players for the two new franchises — GT and Lucknow Super Giants.

His reported fee was Rs 15 crore and he led the side to back-to-back finals, winning the championship in maiden year and losing a thriller to CSK in 2023.

Hardik Pandya announced as captain for the IPL 2024 season.

India on Wednesday urged world leaders at the global climate talks COP28 to implement the Paris Agreement in letter and spirit through the Global Stocktake process while maintaining the focus on the principles of equity and climate justice.

Speaking at the closing plenary of the COP28, where a historic climate deal that called for a transition away from fossil fuels was reached, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav said the collective efforts here have sent positive signals to the world in reinforcing commitment to maintaining the temperature goals set in Paris.

China, jointly with Egypt, launched a new MisrSat-2 satellite into space on Monday hitting a milestone in its space cooperation program with the African country. The MisrSat-2 satellite was launched on the Long March-2C carrier rocket around 12:10 p.m. Beijing Time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in China's Gobi Desert, according to the Chinese state media. The optical remote sensing satellite has successfully entered the orbit. China also helped Egypt build the satellite assembly integration testing center

The satellite, which boasts its role in crucial functions such as farming, national resources, urban planning, and coastal change monitoring in space, was tested and developed jointly at the Chinafunded Satellite Assembly, Integration, and Test Center (AITC) in Cairo. It underwent the three month orbital testing phase before it was handed over to the Egyptian Space Agency. The Egyptian staff received the training programs from China that included the entire satellite design, assembly and testing.

A proposed comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Oman is on a fast-track mode, with a team of officials from the department of commerce in Muscat for negotiations, people aware of the matter said.

It is learnt that the department of commerce has set an internal deadline of finalising the deal by month-end.

The development assumes significance since India and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) —has not been able to begin negotiations for more than a year. This is due to differences pertaining to the terms of reference, especially with Saudi Arabia. If the trade works out, Oman will be the second GCC member after the UAE to ink an FTA with India. That apart, the proposed agreement is also expected to further strengthen India’s economic ties with West Asia.

Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare Professor S.P. Singh Bhagel and Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar today released the Strategic Framework of Drowning Prevention in India, in New Delhi. The ministry has released the framework in a bid to reduce preventable drowning incidents in the country. The framework aims to undertake and catalyze concrete action and attention to drowning prevention.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar said that prevention of drowning is crucial and can have a sizeable impact on the burden of the problem. The minister emphasized on the crucial role of multi-sectoral role stakeholders to take forward this initiative.

Government of India is committed to make provision for safe & potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality and on a regular & long-term basis to all rural households in the country. Towards this end, the Government of India launched the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), to be implemented in partnership with states, in August 2019. Drinking Water is a state subject, and hence, the responsibility of planning, approval, implementation, operation, and maintenance of drinking water supply schemes, including those under the Jal Jeevan Mission, lies with State/UT Governments. The Government of India supports the States by providing technical and financial assistance.

Significant progress has been made in the country since the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission, towards enhancing access to tap water to rural households. At the start of Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019, only 3.23 Crore (16.8%) rural households were reported to have tap water connections. So far, as reported by States/ UTs as on 07.12.2023, around 10.53 Crore additional rural households have been provided with tap water connections under JJM. Thus, as on 07.12.2023, out of 19.24 Crore rural households in the country, approximately 13.76 Crore (71.51%) households are reported to have tap water supply in their homes.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT has said that the program- 'YUVAi- Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI’ will be featured at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit beginning from Tuesday in New Delhi. The programme, designed to equip the youth with essential AI skills, has garnered attention for its innovative approach and commitment to enabling a future-ready workforce. The programme is a collaborative initiative of the National e-Governance Division, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Intel India.

The Ministry said, YUVAi aims to foster a deeper understanding of AI, to enable school students from class 8 to 12 across the nation with AI skills, and to empower them to become human-centric designers and users of AI.

Finland, on Monday, awarded the International Gender Equality Prize for 2023 to an NGO in Afghanistan that works to promote and protect the rights of women in Afghanistan. The organisation Afghan Women Skills Development Center does important humanitarian work to promote the safety of Afghan women.

Ever since the Taliban came into power, Afghanistan is an example of a country where women's human rights are systematically suppressed and girls have been denied access to secondary education and women to higher education.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo attended the ceremony and presented the EUR 300,000 Prize to the organisation's representative, Mahbouba Seraj, in Tampere.