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Chennai Chess Olympiad 2022 : India 2 clinches bronze; Uzbekistan takes gold ahead of Armenia

India 1 holds top-seeded USA to finish fifth; individual golds for Gukesh, Nihal, silver for Erigiasi; bronze for Praggs

Putting aside the disappointment of missing a chance to have a go at the gold medal, India 2 climbed the podium with a resounding 3-1 victory over Germany in the 11th and final round of the Chess Olympiad on Tuesday.

With Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani striking with white and D. Gukesh and R. Praggnanandhaa gaining a draw with black, India 2 emerged as the only team on 18 points, one behind champion Uzbekistan and runner-up Armenia.

The young combination of Uzbekistan defeated Netherlands 2.5-1.5 while joint-overnight leader Armenia scored an identical victory over Spain.

For India, this was the second medal in the Open section of the Olympiad, to go with the one from the 2014 edition.

India 1 also came up with a fine performance to hold top seed USA 2-2. But this result left the teams on 17 points and away from the podium. India 1 finished fourth and USA, fifth. India 3, seeded 16, drew with Kazakhstan to finish a distant 31st.

Reward for brilliance

Individual gold medals for D. Gukesh and Nihal Sarin, silver to Arjun Erigiasi and bronze to R. Praggnanandhaa underlined the phenomenal display of this teen-quartet in the premier competition.

Important results (11th round, with match-points):

Open:Germany (15) lost to India 2 (18) 1-3 (Vincent Keymer drew with D. Gukesh; Matthias Bluebaum lost to Nihal Sarin; Rasmus Svane drew with R. Praggnanandhaa; Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu lost to Raunak Sadhwani).

India 1 (17) drew with USA (17) 2-2 (P. Harikrishna drew with Caruana Fabiano; Vidit Gujrathi drew with Wesley So; Arjun Erigaisi bt Leinier Dominguez Perez; S.L. Narayanan lost to Sam Shankland).

Kazakhstan (15) drew with India 3 (14) 2-2 (Rinat Jumabayev bt Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Alisher Sulemenov drew with S.P. Sethuraman; Arystanbek Urzayev lost to M. Karthikeyan; Kazybek Norgerbek drew with Abhimanyu Puranik).

Armenia (19) bt Spain (15) 2.5-1.5; Uzbekistan (19) bt Netherlands (15) 2.5-1.5; Moldova (17) bt England (15) 2.5-1.5; Azerbaijan (16) bt Serbia (15) 2.5-1.5.

The standings: 1-2. Uzbekistan, Armenia; 3. India 2; 4-6. India 1, USA and Moldova; 31. India 3.

Individual prizes: Board 1: 1. D. Gukesh (Ind 2), 2. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb), Magnus Carlsen (Nor).

Board 2: 1. Nihal Sarin (Ind 2), 2. Nikolaos Theodorou (Gre), 3. Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb);

Board 3: 1. David Howell (Eng), 2. Arjun Erigaisi (Ind 1), 3. R. Praggnanandhaa (Ind 2).

Board 4: 1. Jakhongir Vakhidov (Uzb), 2. Paulius Pultinevicius (Ltu), 3. Jaime Santos Latasa (Esp).

Reserve: 1. Mateusz Bartel (Pol), 2. Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm), 3. Volodymyr Onyshchuk (Ukr).

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Justice U.U. Lalit appointed 49th Chief Justice of India

He will have a brief tenure as he will demit office on November 8

Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was appointed the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Wednesday after President Droupadi Murmu signed his warrant of appointment.

Justice Lalit will assume charge on August 27, a day after Justice N.V. Ramana demits office as the CJI. Justice Lalit will have a brief tenure as he will demit office on November 8 after holding the charge as the CJI for a little under three months.

Justice Lalit will be the second CJI who was directly elevated to the apex court Bench from the Bar.

Justice S.M. Sikri was the first lawyer to be elevated directly to the top court Bench in March 1964 and went on to become the 13th CJI in January 1971.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Chief Justice of India with effect from 27 August, 2022,” a Law Ministry notification said.

While Supreme Court judges retire on attaining the age of 65, judges of the 25 High Courts superannuate at the age of 62.

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In a first, indigenous ATAGS to be part of 21-gun salute on Independence Day

It will stand as a testament to India’s growing capacity of developing arms and ammunition, says Defence Secretary

In a first, an indigenous artillery gun, the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), will be used along with the usual 25-Pounders for the 21-gun salute during the Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort this year.

“The initiative to use this indigenously developed gun will stand as a testament to India’s growing capacity of developing arms and ammunition indigenously. The gun has been specifically customised both in terms of blank firing and sound attributes so that it will be useful for ceremonial purposes,” Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said, briefing the media on this year’s celebrations.

Since Independence, the ceremonial 21-gun salute is accorded by seven vintage Quick Fire 25 Pounder guns which fire blank rounds as the National Anthem is played after the hoisting of the National Flag by the Prime Minister.

This year, in addition to the 25-Pounders, as they are popularly known, one ATAGS will be used, Mr. Kumar said. 

The ATAGS is a 155 mm, 52 calibre heavy artillery gun jointly developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), the Pune-based laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in partnership with Bharat Forge and Tata Group. In May, the gun successfully completed validation trails towards meeting the specifications of the Army and is now ready for induction.

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ICAR develops vaccine for Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle

As of August 8, the disease has spread to Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and Uttarakhand

In a major breakthrough, two institutes of Agri research body ICAR have developed an indigenous vaccine for Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle which has spread across many States in the last few months.

The Centre plans to commercialise this vaccine, developed by the two institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), at the earliest in order to control the Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), which has led to the death of cattle in six States.

As of August 8, Rajasthan has reported 2,111 deaths of cattle, followed by Gujarat at 1,679, Punjab at 672, Himachal Pradesh at 38, Andaman & Nicobar at 29 and Uttarakhand at 26.

ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines (ICAR-NRCE), Hisar (Haryana), in collaboration with ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar, Uttar Pradesh has developed a homologous live-attenuated LSD vaccine “Lumpi-ProVacInd”.

The new technology was released by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Parshottam Rupala at an event held in the national capital.

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CorbeVax cleared as precaution dose vaccine, awaits WHO’s emergency use listing

This the first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination has been allowed in the country

Still awaiting World Health Organisation’s emergency use listing (EUL) the Central Government on August 10 approved Biological E’s CorbeVax as a precaution dose for those above 18 years fully vaccinated with either Covishield or Covaxin.

EUL is a risk-based procedure for assessing and listing unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and in-vitro diagnostics with the ultimate aim of expediting the availability of products to people affected by a public health emergency. Also international travel in many countries requires people to get a vaccine that’s on the WHO’s approved list.

That pending, the latest approval by the Central Government makes this the first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination has been allowed in the country.

This will be in addition to the existing guidelines for homologous precaution dose administration of Covaxin and Covishield vaccine. Also all necessary changes in regard to the administration of precaution dose of CorbeVax vaccine are being made on the Co-WIN portal.

The approval is based on the recommendations made recently by the Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). CorbeVax is to be considered as a precaution dose after completion of six months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccines for those aged above 18 years enabling use of CorbeVax as a heterologous Covid-19 vaccine for precaution dose administration in this age group.

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Sunil Chhetri, Manisha Kalyan named men’s and women’s AIFF Footballer of Year

Sunil Chhetri, the third highest goal scorer among active international players, was first named for the award in 2007

National captain Sunil Chhetri was on Tuesday named the AIFF Men’s Footballer of the Year for the seventh time while Manisha Kalyan was picked for her maiden honour in the women’s category for the 2021-22 season.

Chhetri and Kalyan were nominated as the winners by their respective national team coaches Igor Stimac and Thomas Dennerby.

Chhetri, the third highest goal scorer among active international players, was first named for the award in 2007. He then went on to win it in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018–19 seasons.

“Sunil was our highest goal-scorer, scoring 5 goals, and also the Player of the Tournament in the SAFF Cup,” Stimac said.

“Furthermore, he led from the front scoring 4 goals in 3 games in the 3rd round of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in Kolkata. His commitment, leadership, discipline and hard work were impressive throughout bad, and good times.”

For Kalyan, it was her first Women’s Footballer of the Year award. She won the Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year in the 2020-21 season.

“Manisha has come up with some outstanding performances for the National Team, and also her club. She has scored goals, and also assisted on a regular basis,” Dennerby said.

“Blessed with excellent speed and being a good dribbler, she has the potential to play in bigger leagues in the future. She’s young, and still developing but has been our best player.”

Kalyan recently signed a multi-year contract with Cypriot top division winners Apollon Ladies, which has earned a place in the qualifying rounds of the 2022-23 UEFA Women’s Champions League.

In other awards, Martina Thokchom was named the 2021-22 Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year, and Vikram Partap Singh was picked as the 2021-22 Men’s Emerging Footballer of the Year by the two national team coaches.

AIFF Awards (2021-22):

Women’s Footballer of the Year: Manisha Kalyan

Men’s Footballer of the Year: Sunil Chhetri

Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year: Martina Thokchom

Men’s Emerging Footballer of the Year: Vikram Partap Singh

Best Referee of the Year: Crystal John

Best Assistant Referee of the Year: Ujjal Halder

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Chennai Chess Olympiad | India ‘B’ team wins bronze in Open section; India ‘A’ women also finish third

The top-seeded India ‘A’ women’s team crashed to a defeat in the 11th and final round to USA

India ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal in the Open section while the India ‘A’ women’s side also finished third in the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Tuesday.

India ‘B’ defeated Germany 3-1 in their final round match to end at third position.

Uzbekistan sprung a surprise by bagging the gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands ahead of a strong Armenian team, which beat Spain 2.5-1.5 in the final round, in the Open section.

The top-seeded India ‘A’ women’s team crashed to a defeat in the 11th and final round to USA to see it’s gold medal hopes evaporate. The Koneru Humpy-led team finished third.

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CWG 2022: Here’s the full list of 61 medals won by India at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Indian athletes won medals across 12 different sports that included a historic gold medal in lawn bowls while wrestlers once again had a 100% strike rate.

India ended the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday with 61 medals: 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals, which placed the contingent fourth on the overall standings.

India’s campaign in Birmingham ended with gold medals for PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj-Chirag Shetty in badminton and Sharath Kamal in table tennis. Sathiyan G won bronze in TT while the men’s hockey team won silver in the final on Monday.

Scroll.in’s full coverage of CWG 2022 here.

MEDAL TALLY: India finish fourth in the final standing with 61 medals

Weightlifters Sanket Sargar, Gururaja Poojary, Bindyarani Devi and Mirabai Chanu opened India’s medal account on the second day of the Games.

India secured medals in 12 different sporting disciplines.

India topped the individual discipline medal tally in wrestling, weightlifting, badminton and table tennis (including para table tennis).

The women’s fours lawn bowls fours team scripted history by winning India’s first medal in the sport when they clinched gold. The men’s team also came back with a silver medal.

PV Sindhu completed her set of Commonwealth Games medals, winning the elusive singles gold to add to the silver and bronze she won at previous editions. Lakshya Sen, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won gold in men’s singles and doubles events as India claimed six medals in badminton.

In athletics, Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker completed a historic 1-2 after winning gold and silver in the men’s triple jump. Avinash Sable put in arguably the best individual performance by an Indian athlete in Birmingham when he ended Kenya’s 24-year-old monopoly in the 3000m steeplechase by winning silver.

The veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal, playing in his fifth Commonwealth Games, won medals in all four table tennis events he participated in including a first gold in mixed doubles to complete his set of gold medals.

The Indian wrestlers won medals in all events for the second time in a row with Vinesh Phogat completing her hattrick of gold medals.

For the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Games, India won medals in both the men’s and women’s hockey event in the same edition after the men won silver while the women clinched bronze.

Here is the list of all 61 medals won by India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

Athletics

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Eldhose PaulMen’s Triple JumpGOLD
Abdulla AboobackerMen’s Triple JumpSILVER
Avinash SableMen’s 3000m SteeplechaseSILVER
Priyanka GoswamiWomen’s 10km Race WalkSILVER
M SreeshankarMen’s Long JumpSILVER
Tejaswin ShankarMen’s High JumpBRONZE
Annu RaniWomen’s Javelin ThrowBRONZE
Sandeep KumarMen’s 10km Race WalkBRONZE

Badminton

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
PV SindhuWomen’s singlesGOLD
Lakshya SenMen’s SinglesGOLD
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag ShettyMen’s DoublesGOLD
Kidambi Srikanth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, B Sumeeth Reddy, Lakshya Sen, Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly, Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashwini Ponnappa, Gayatri Gopichand, PV SindhuMixed TeamSILVER
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri GopichandWomen’s DoublesBRONZE
Kidambi SrikanthMen’s SinglesBRONZE

Boxing

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Nikhat ZareenWomen’s 50kgGOLD
Nitu GhanghasWomen’s 48kgGOLD
Amit PanghalMen’s 51kgGOLD
Sagar Ahlawat Men’s +92kgSILVER
Rohit TokasMen’s 67kgBRONZE
JaismineWomen’s 60kgBRONZE
Mohammed HussamuddinMen’s 57kgBRONZE

Cricket

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Taniya Bhatia, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sabbineni Meghana, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma, Radha YadavCricket T20SILVER

Hockey

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Abhishake Nain, Surender Kumar, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, PR Sreejesh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Akashdeep Singh, Amit Rohidas, Jigraj Singh, Vivek Sagar PrasadMen’s HockeySILVER
Savita Punia, Gurjit Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Monika, Sonika, Sharmila Devi, Nikki Pradhan, Rajani Etimarpu, Sangita Kumari, Nisha, Vandana Katariya, Udita, Lalremsiami, Jyoti, Navneet Kaur, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Salima Tete, Neha GoyalWomen’s HockeyBRONZE

Judo

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Sushila Devi LikmabamWomen’s 48kgSILVER
Tulika MaanWomen’s +78kgSILVER
Vijay Kumar YadavMen’s 60kgBRONZE

Lawn Bowls

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey, Naynmoni Saikia, PinkiWomen’s FoursGOLD
Chandan Kumar Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Navneet Singh, Sunil BahadurMen’s FoursSILVER

Powerlifting

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
SudhirMen’s HeavyweightGOLD

Squash

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Saurav GhosalMen’s SinglesBRONZE
Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav GhosalMixed DoublesBRONZE

Table Tennis and Para Table Tennis

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sreeja AkulaMixed Doubles GOLD
Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Sanil ShettyMen’s TeamGOLD
Bhavina PatelWomen’s Singles Classes 3-5GOLD
Achanta Sharath KamalMen’s SinglesGOLD
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan GnanasekaranMen’s DoublesSILVER
Sathiyan GnanasekaranMen’s SinglesBRONZE
Sonal PatelWomen’s Singles Classes 3-5BRONZE

Weightlifting

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Saikom Mirabai ChanuWomen’s 49kgGOLD
Jeremy LalrinnungaMen’s 67kgGOLD
Achinta SheuliMen’s 73kgGOLD
Sanket SargarMen’s 55kgSILVER
Bindyarani DeviWomen’s 55kgSILVER
Vikas ThakurMen’s 96kgSILVER
Gururaja PoojaryMen’s 61kgBRONZE
Harjinder KaurWomen’s 71kgBRONZE
Lovepreet SinghMen’s 109kgBRONZE
Gurdeep SinghMen’s 109+kgBRONZE

Wrestling

ATHLETESEVENTMEDAL
Bajrang PuniaMen’s 65kgGOLD
Sakshi MalikWomen’s 62kgGOLD
Deepak PuniaMen’s 86kgGOLD
Ravi Kumar DahiyaMen’s 57kgGOLD
Vinesh PhogatWomen’s 53kgGOLD
NaveenMen’s 74kgGOLD
Anshu MalikWomen’s 57kgSILVER
Divya KakranWomen’s 68kgBRONZE
Mohit GrewalMen’s 125kgBRONZE
Pooja GehlotWomen’s 50kgBRONZE
Pooja SihagWomen’s 76kgBRONZE
Deepak NehraMen’s 97kgBRONZE

source/content: scroll.in (headline edited)

HAL developing AI-driven long-endurance drone for vigil over China border

 State-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is working on an AI-driven multi-role, advanced and long-endurance drone for strategic missions in high-altitude areas including along the frontiers with China, people familiar with the development said on Sunday.

The rotary-wing drone will have the capability to carry a load of 40 kgs, including missiles and sensors, and it is being developed considering the requirement of the armed forces to keep a strong vigil over the mountainous areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), they said.

The HAL has set a target of conducting the maiden test-flying of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by the middle of next year and plans to produce 60 such platforms in the first phase of the project, the people in the know told PTI.

They said the operating system of the long-endurance drone will feature applications of Artificial Intelligence and the armed forces will be able to use it for multiple purposes including transporting essential supplies.

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Indian Virtual Herbarium, biggest database of country’s flora, is a global hit

The portal, with nearly one lakh images of specimens, recorded two lakh hits from 55 countries since its July 1 launch; site to host all of India’s herbaria by 2024

With details of about one lakh plant specimens, Indian Virtual Herbarium, the biggest virtual database of flora in the country, is generating a lot of interest and turning out to be an eye-catching endeavour. While herbarium specimens are considered important tools for plant taxonomy, conservation, habitat loss and even climate change, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently described Indian Virtual Herbarium as an example of how digital tools can help us connect to our roots.

In the ‘Mann Ki Baat ‘ episode on July 31, 2022, the Prime Minister spoke about the novel initiative and said that Indian Virtual Herbarium is an interesting collection of plants and preserved parts of plants. “The virtual herbarium also presents a rich botanical diversity of the country. I am convinced that Indian Virtual Herbarium will turn out to be an important resource for research on plants in the country,” Mr. Modi said.

Developed by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Indian Virtual Herbarium was inaugurated by Union Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav on July 1 in Kolkata. Only five weeks since its launch, the portal https://ivh.bsi.gov.in has nearly 2 lakh hits from 55 countries.

Each record in the digital herbarium includes an image of the preserved plant specimen, scientific name, collection locality, and collection date, collector name, and barcode number. The digital herbarium also includes features to extract the data State-wise and users can search plants of their own States which will help them to identify regional plants and in building regional checklists.

The portal includes about one lakh images of herbarium specimens; Director of Botanical Survey of India (BSI) Dr. A.A. Mao said by the end of this year the number of digitized species will increase to two lakh. “By the 2024, we plan to provide a platform to all the herbaria in the country so that they can display their herbarium collection on the platform,” Dr. Mao said.

Scientists say that there are approximately three million plant specimens in the country which are with different herbaria that are located at zonal centers of BSI and at the Central National Herbarium located at Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden at Howrah in West Bengal.

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