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Tendulkar picks India, England and Australia as favourites to reach semi-finals of world cup

OpIndia Staff
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Tendulkar picks India, England and Australia as favourites to reach semi-finals of world cup

Sachin Tendulkar, the leading run scorer in World Cups, was present during the first match of the Cricket World Cup 2019. The modern great picked 3 players and 4 semifinalists when asked about his prediction for this World Cup.

Tendulkar was making his commentary debut for Star Sports at The Oval.

When asked which four teams he would pick for the semi-final, Tendulkar picked India, England, and Australia. For the 4th slot, he was a little confused between New Zealand and South Africa. But in the end, Tendulkar picked New Zealand as his 4th choice for semifinalists.

The batting great was on air for 13 overs at the start of South African innings. Tendulkar said that he is eagerly waiting to watch Rashid Khan bowl, “I think he’s going to be instrumental in creating those upsets in this tournament.”

Afghanistan is playing its second World Cup this time, but Rashid is playing his first. In 2015, they won against Scotland and lost to other teams but this time they are looking much more solid and confident.

Apart from India, Tendulkar picked two more players, each from Australia and England. Tendulkar believes that Australian opener David Warner will the best batsman of this edition. “Warner looked hungry, determined, focussed and fitter. In extreme conditions, he pushed himself and ran hard. He looks determined so I think he’s the batter to watch out for,” said Tendulkar.

Tendulkar also picked England’s new sensation, Jofra Archer as one of the players to watch out. Archer took 3 for 27 against South Africa in the opening game (Tendulkar picked Archer during the innings break). He thinks a lot will depend on how Archer will perform in a crunch situation.

Tendulkar will be part of the Star Sports commentary team and will be seen again during India v South Africa match on June 5.

Modi Sarkar 2.0: The ones who didn’t make it to the council of ministers on Thursday

OpIndia Staff
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Modi Sarkar 2.0: The ones who didn’t make it to the council of ministers on Thursday

In a grand ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan last evening, apart from PM Modi, 24 Cabinet Ministers, 9 Ministers of State with independent charge, and 24 Ministers of State have been inducted in the ministry. The total strength of the union government is 58.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet has several first-timers, there are few ministers from the 1st term who have not been included.

Among those missing from the Modi’s refurbished Union cabinet, the two prominent faces are that of Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, both having opted out of the government citing health reasons.

Sushma Swaraj took to Twitter to congratulate PM Modi on his ongoing journey and thanked him for giving her the opportunity to serve people, both Indians and non-resident Indians and for the respect and courtesy extended to her during the last five years.


Sushma Swaraj who sat in the audience to watch PM Modi and his 57-member team take the oath of office and secrecy had changed her Twitter bio to reflect her exit from the government just moments before tweeting her note to the PM.

Arun Jaitley, the Minister of finance and corporate affairs in Modi’s 1.0 cabinet also congratulated PM Modi on taking oath for the second time as the Prime Minister of India and wished all the council of ministers inducted in the Union Council of Minister’s, good luck.


Meanwhile, Uma Bharati, another Union minister in the previous government, also decided not to contest Lok Sabha elections and was also not included in the new cabinet.

Apart from these, there were many surprises in omissions:

Menaka Gandhi: The women and child development minister in the previous government was not included in the newly inducted cabinet.

Jayant Sinha: As MoS in the previous government, Jayant Sinha handled finance and civil aviation portfolios.

Suresh Prabhu: The Minister of Civil Aviation in the previous government was also given a miss.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: A former soldier and Olympic medal winner, Rathore was handling that sports and also of information and broadcasting in the previous government.

Radha Mohan Singh: Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in Modi 1.0 was also dropped by Modi.

Jagat Prakash Nadda: Though in the previous government, JP Nadda maintained a low profile but handled the portfolio of health-implementing initiatives of PM Modi in the sector. Considered to be a strong organisational leader, Nadda is tipped to be Amit Shah’s successor as the BJP president.

Anant Kumar Hegde: Hegde, who won the Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency by over 4 lakh votes and held skill development portfolio in previous government has been dropped too.

Manoj Singh: He was Minister of Communications (independent charge) and Minister of State (MoS), Railways in the previous government. Sinha’s defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Gazipur constituency, Uttar Pradesh, is being attributed to him being given a miss from the newly inducted cabinet.

Anupriya Patel: As an MoS in the health and family welfare ministry, she failed to make a distinct mark during the five years of the previous government.

Among others who were dropped in the new cabinet are Jual Oram of the BJP and Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena.

Meanwhile, the portfolios of the ministers who have found space in the new cabinet will be announced later.

World Cup: Match 1 – England v South Africa in Numbers

Ritesh
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World Cup: Match 1 – England v South Africa in Numbers

The first match of the World Cup is over, and surprisingly it was a one-sided game. England had a shaky start when they lost Bairstow in the second ball of the match. But they came back hard on South Africa.

The match was dominated by one man, with both bat and ball, Ben Stokes. He also took 2 catches. Stokes was later declared man of the match. So let’s look at the numbers.

This is the 5th time England played the opening of a World Cup at home and they won all. Three times they won by batting first (1975, 1983, 2019) and two times batting second (1979, 1999).

Jonny Bairstow is the first opener to be out for a golden duck in the opening innings of a World Cup tournament.

He’s the first England opener to get a golden duck in any World Cup when England batted first. This is also the first time Bairstow was dismissed by a leg spinner.

South Africa opened their bowling with leg spinner Imran Tahir. Never before in World Cup history, a leg spinner bowled the first over of the tournament.

Tahir took 2 wickets in his quota of 10 overs. He is now a joint second leading wicket-taker (31) along with Shaun Pollock for South Africa in World Cup. Alland Donald (38) is at the top of the list.

Eoin Morgan reached the milestone of 7,000 runs in ODI. He scored 744 runs for Ireland and remaining for England.

Four batsmen from England scored a half-century in this match. This is the first time 4 English batsmen scored a 50 in the same match of a World Cup.

England scored 311 in 50 overs, this is the 5th consecutive time they have crossed the mark of 300 in ODI. They are just one score behind Australia’s record.

Most consecutive 300-totals in ODIs – 6 Australia (2007), 5 Sri Lanka (2006), 5 India (2017), * England (2019)

Ben Stokes became only the second player in World Cup history to score more than 80 runs, take 2 wickets and 2 catches. Aravinda de Silva achieved this unique record in World Cup Final, 1996.

Mamata Banerjee again loses cool after hearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’, asks cops to arrest people who chanted the slogan

OpIndia Staff
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Mamata Banerjee again loses cool after hearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’, asks cops to arrest people who chanted the slogan

West Bengal Chief Minister seems to have some aversion to the name of Lord Ram and therefore she often loses her cool if she hears someone chanting the name of Lor Ram.


Today the West Bengal Chief Minister objected strongly to the people who were chanting the slogan of Jai Shri Ram in North 24 Parganas. As she was passing through the area, some people started chanting the slogan of Jai Shri Ram. Hearing this, Mamata Banerjee climbed out of the car and started shouting on the people. She said that the people chanting the slogan are outsiders and are not from the State. She threatened to take action against them. “We will take action against them”, she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcMyqHFtFzQ&feature=youtu.be

Mamata Banerjee also alleged that people chanting Jai Shri Ram were criminals and they were attacking and abusing her. She said that they were alive because of her. After that she ordered the police officials present there to collect the names of people who chanted the slogan and to pick them up from their homes.

After this when she boarded the car, the people again chanted Jai Shri Ram. Angered at this, she again came out of her vehicle and asked the people who were shouting to come forward. She said addressed them by saying ‘Gunda’, ‘criminals’. She said that they are BJP workers and outsiders, and not Bengalis.

When finally her convoy started leaving the spot, the crowd there started shouting ‘Modi, Modi’ this time.

This is not the first time that Mamata has reacted like this to the chants of Jai Shri Ram. A video of hers had gone viral earlier this month in which she was seen confronting people Jai Shri Ram in a similar way.

Meanwhile, a BJP worker was allegedly thrashed to death by TMC workers in West Bengal. The victim named Sushil Mondal, 52 was making preparations for a victory rally in Burdwan today. The TMC cadre allegedly thrashed Mondal after he chanted Jai Shri Ram.

Unhappy with offer of just one minister, JDU refuses to be part of the Modi 2.0 ministry, continue to be part of NDA

OpIndia Staff
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Unhappy with offer of just one minister, JDU refuses to be part of the Modi 2.0 ministry, continue to be part of NDA

In a recent development, the JD(U) on Thursday announced that it won’t be joining the cabinet of the Modi government. The announcement came just before the swearing-in ceremony was about to begin at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. JDU chief Nitish Kumar said that inclusion of just 1 JDU legislator in the cabinet would have meant symbolic participation and that he has informed the BJP that they don’t need it.


However, clearing the air of suspicion, Kumar reiterated that his party is still a member of the NDA and there is no resentment for the cabinet berths. According to the sources, JDU was expecting at least 3 cabinet berths but the BJP’s offer of just 1 cabinet position was simply unpalatable for them. They were also reportedly unhappy with the portfolio offered to them. Initially, Rajya Sabha member RCP Singh was homed in on but Nitish Kumar’s last-minute negotiations with the BJP top brass didn’t yield the intended results.

JDU fought the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Bihar in coalition with BJP and Ramvilas Paswan’s LJP. JDU has sent 17 MPs to the new Lok Sabha and BJP has sent 16 from Bihar, along with LJP which has sent 6 MPs.

Kashimiri ISIS terrorist in custody of US forces in Syria, parents approach government to bring him home

OpIndia Staff
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Kashimiri ISIS terrorist in custody of US forces in Syria, parents approach government to bring him home

A Kashmiri youth named Aadil Ahmad Wada, who had allegedly joined the ISIS in 2013 has reportedly been arrested by the US-allied forces in Syria. Wada, an MBA from Queensland University in Australia, is believed to have informed his parents living in the Jawahar Nagar locality of Srinagar about his arrest through an audio message on March 25.

“We have been surrounded by US forces. I am performing Istikhara (special prayer by Muslims when in need of guidance) and we have decided to surrender with the family,” Adil told his father Fayaz Ahmad Wada in his last voice note. This confirms that he along with over 1,500 ISIS fighters and their families were intercepted and captured by US-led forces around March in Syria.

Wada’s family has since then been approaching Jammu and Kashmir police and other agencies seeking help to bring their son back. They have also sought an appointment with Governor Satya Pal Malik. The authorities have reportedly informed the family that the process would be initiated after the new government assumes office in New Delhi.

Wada had reportedly lied to his parents that he had got a job in an NGO in Turkey, after struggling to find one in Australia, Qatar, and Dubai. After migrating to ISIS-controlled Syria, he married a Dutch woman who had also joined the terror group.

After completing his MBA in Australia, Adil left for Turkey via Jordan on June 21, 2013, on an Indian passport after allegedly getting in touch with some radical groups based in Australia.

His family had been claiming that Adil was working in Syria and neighbouring countries, till his father received a message from his Dutch wife that she and their son were in custody of the US-allied forces.

Adil’s wife, according to the officials, contacted her husband’s family after being given access to the International Committee of Red Cross.

Meanwhile, Adil’s father, Ahmad said, “I have now approached the state authorities seeking help to bring back my son,” and added, “I have been informed that a formal process will start only after the new government assumes office in New Delhi.”

Last year we had reported how a 19-year-old Kashmiri student named Ehtisham Bilal, pursuing engineering at Uttar Pradesh’s Sharda University, had joined the terror group Islamic State (IS).

According to the reports, a picture of Ehtisham Bilal carrying a gun with an ISIS flag in the background had surfaced on social media, causing concerns that he had joined the Islamic terrorist outfit. In a purported audio message that had gone viral on social media, the B Tech student identified as Ehtisham Bilal pledged his allegiance to the ‘Islamic State’ group led by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

We had earlier reported regarding a Muslim youth named Ashfaque Majeed who had allegedly joined the IS after he was brainwashed by Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation’s manager Arshi Qureshi. According to police, Majeed was belived to have fled the country along with his wife, one-year-old toddler daughter and other youngsters in 2016 to join the ISIS Terror ranks.

Full list of the ministers in the new union government that took oath along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

OpIndia Staff
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Full list of the ministers in the new union government that took oath along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

This is the list of Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that took oath today at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The names have been listed in the order of taking the oath. Apart from PM Modi, 24 Cabinet ministers, 9 Ministers of State with independent charge, and 24 Ministers of State, have been inducted in the ministry. The total strength of the union government is 58.

Prime Minister:

  • Narendra Modi

Cabinet Ministers

  1. Rajnath Singh
  2. Amit Shah
  3. Nitin Jairam Gadkari
  4. D. V. Sadananda Gowda
  5. Nirmala Sitharaman
  6. Ram Vilas Paswan
  7. Narendra Singh Tomar
  8. Ravi Shankar Prasad
  9. Harsimrat Kaur Badal
  10. Thawar Singh Gehlot
  11. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
  12. Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank”
  13. Arjun Munda
  14. Smriti Zubin Irani
  15. Dr. Harsh Vardhan
  16. Prakash Javadekar
  17. Piyush Goyal
  18. Dharmendra Pradhan
  19. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
  20. Pralhad Joshi
  21. Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey
  22. Arvind Sawant
  23. Giriraj Singh
  24. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Ministers of State (Indipendent Charge)

  1. Santosh Kumar Gangwar
  2. Rao Inderjit Singh
  3. Shripad Yesso Naik
  4. Dr. Jitendra Singh
  5. Kiren Rijiju
  6. Prahlad Singh Patel
  7. Raj Kumar Singh
  8. Hardeep Singh Puri
  9. Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya

Ministers of State

  1. Faggan Singh Kulaste
  2. Ashwini Kumar Choubey
  3. Arjun Ram Meghwal
  4. General (Retd.) Vijay Kumar Singh
  5. Krishan Pal Gurjar
  6. Raosaheb Dadarao Patil Danve
  7. Gangapuram Kishan Reddy
  8. Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala
  9. Ramdas Athawale
  10. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
  11. Babul Supriyo
  12. Sajeed Kumar Balyan
  13. Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
  14. Anurag Singh Thakur
  15. Angadi Suresh Channabasappa
  16. Nityanad Rai
  17. Rattan Lal Kataria
  18. Vellamvelly Muraleedharan
  19. Renuka Singh Saruta
  20. Som Prakash
  21. Rameswar Teli
  22. Pratap Chandra Sarangi
  23. Kailash Choudhary
  24. Debasree Chaudhuri

The portifolois of the ministers will be announced later.

16 terrorist camps active in Pakistan planning infiltration into Kashmir, 2 Pakistani nationals caught today

OpIndia Staff
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16 terrorist camps active in Pakistan planning infiltration into Kashmir, 2 Pakistani nationals caught today

Two Pakistani nationals were apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) in the Harami Nallah area in Runn of Kutch today. Both were caught along with their fishing boat, and they are being interrogated.


According to inputs received by intelligence agencies, around 16 terrorists camps are active inside the territory of Pakistan where terrorists are being trained to infiltrate into the Kashmir valley. “There are 16 terrorist camps, which have been activated in the last few months as per the reports received from intelligence agencies. More such camps are in process of being activated for the infiltration season”, said the Army sources.

The areas close to the LoC are under the scrutiny of the agencies. “The entire exercise by the Pakistani Army and the ISIS is under our watch and we are ready on the LoC and the international border to deal with any misadventure from their side,” the sources added.

Recently, Zakir Musa, most wanted terrorist and Chief of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind was killed by security forces in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir.

India records 51% decline in child marriages and 63% decline in teen motherhoods since 2000: Global Childhood Report 2019

OpIndia Staff
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India records 51% decline in child marriages and 63% decline in teen motherhoods since 2000: Global Childhood Report 2019

In the last few years, various reforms have led India to script various success stories. The Global Report on Childhood 2019 published by an NGO called Save the Children, has appreciated India’s performance in reducing child marriages and improving indicators related to child health, giving us another reason to feel proud. The report also suggests a 25% decline in the rate of child marriage worldwide.

An excerpt from the report reads, “India has greatly reduced child marriage through legal reforms, programs to educate and empower girls, and public awareness campaigns.”

India has witnessed a 51% decline in child marriages since 2000 and this percentage rose to 63% since 1999. Amongst the South Asian counterparts, India has succeeded in reducing child marriages whereas the decline in child marriages of girls under the age of 15 years has been rapid. The report claims that had the rate of child marriage remained unchanged, around 9 million underage girls would be married off in India today.

In comparison to these numbers, it is a huge achievement. The report also enlists a few factors that have helped in curtailing this menace. These include economic growth, increasing rate of girl education, proactive investment by government and its partners in teenage girls and increased public awareness about the woes of child marriage.

As per the report, India has also excelled in reducing the percentage of teen births. Decline in teenage pregnancies at the rate of 63% since 2000 and 75% since 1990 has been observed. This accounts for about three-quarters of the global reduction in teen births during this period. It has resulted in over 2 million lesser teen births now as compared to the year 2000.

The report also ranks India at number 113 out of a total of 176 countries in the ‘End of Childhood Index Ranking 2019’. These rankings are done based on the performance of individual countries across eight indicators- child health, education, labor, marriage, childbirth, and violence.

However, a lot still remains to be done in the areas related to child health and education. While the report shows a considerable decline in the cases of child marriages and teen births but the ultimate goal should aim at eradicating these problems from the roots.

Live updates: Narendra Modi swearing in ceremony

OpIndia Staff
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Live updates: Narendra Modi swearing in ceremony

As Narendra Modi takes oath as the Prime Minister of India for the second time, all eyes are on who will make it to the cabinet. Speculations about Amit Shah being part of cabinet has already been doing the rounds.

This blog will bring you the latest updates. Names of the the leaders from the BJP and alliance partners who will take oath. You don’t need to refresh the page to get the latest update:

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