Mumbai to host IOC session in 2023
Mumbai(PTI): The International Olympic Committee on Saturday awarded India the right to host the IOC Session in Mumbai next year.
Nita Ambani, the Indian representative on the committee, described it as "a significant development for the country's Olympic aspiration".
India will host the session for the first time since 1983. The session will be hosted at the state-of-the-art, brand new Jio World Convention Centre.
Mumbai received a historic 99% of the votes in favour of its bid from the delegates participating in the process, with 75 members endorsing its candidature in the session held at Beijing.
An IOC session is the annual meeting of the members of the IOC, comprising 101 voting members and 45 honorary members.
It discusses and decides on the key activities of the global Olympics movement including adoption or amendment of the Olympic Charter, election of IOC members and office bearers and election of the host city of Olympics.
"The Olympic Movement is back to India after a 40-year wait. I am truly grateful to the International Olympic Committee for entrusting India with the honour of hosting the IOC Session in Mumbai in 2023," said Ambani, the first woman to be elected as an IOC member from India.
"This will be a significant development for India's Olympic aspiration and will herald the start of a new era for Indian sport."
Apart from Ambani, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, and India's first individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra were part of the Indian delegation.
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Two Naxalites gunned down in encounter with cops in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur
Bijapur (Chhattisgarh) (PTI): Two Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday, police said.
The exchange of fire broke out in a forest along the Indravati river in the morning when a joint team of security forces was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, a senior police official said.
After guns fell silent, bodies of two Naxalites, clad in uniform, along with a Self-Loading Rifle, an Insas rifle and a 12-bore rifle were recovered from the spot, he said.
Search operation was still underway, he added.
With this action, at least 25 Maoists have been killed in separate encounters in the state so far this year.
Earlier, 14 Maoists were gunned down in two encounters on January 3 in the Bastar region, which comprises seven districts, including Bijapur.
Last year, 285 Maoists were killed in various encounters with security forces in Chhattisgarh.
The Centre has set a deadline of March 31 this year to eradicate Left-Wing Extremism from the country.
