Paris Olympics 2024: Nita Ambani re-elected unanimously as IOC member
Paris (PTI): Indian sports administrator Nita Amabani was on Wednesday re-elected unanimously as member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Ambani won unanimously with 100 per cent of vote at the 142nd IOC session here.
"I am deeply honoured to be re-elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee. I would like to thank President (Thomas) Bach and all my colleagues in the IOC for their faith and trust in me," Ambani said.
"This re-election is not just a personal milestone but also a recognition of India's growing influence in the global sporting arena. I share this moment of joy and pride with every Indian and look forward to continuing our efforts to strengthen the Olympic Movement in India and around the world," she added.
Ambani was first appointed to join the prestigious body in 2016 at the Rio Olympic Games. Since then, as India's first woman to join the IOC, Ambani has already made great strives for the association, whilst also championing India's sporting ambitions and Olympic vision.
This includes recently hosting the first IOC session in Mumbai in 40 years in October 2023.
As founder and chairperson of the Reliance Foundation, Ambani seeks to empower millions of Indians with resources and opportunities.
She drives various initiatives across sport, education, health, art and culture -- all aimed at improving the lives of people across the country.
As part of a long-term partnership with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Reliance Foundation has opened the first-ever India House at the Paris Olympics.
India House will be a "home away from home" for athletes, a place to celebrate wins, and share India's Olympic journey with the world.
It demonstrates India's ambitions to become a dominant force in global sports, fostering greater success at the Olympics and charting a course towards hosting the Games in the future.
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SC refuses plea against Andhra Pradesh govt panel reviewing SIT report on Tirumala laddu row
New Delhi (PTI): In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to restrain a one-member committee appointed by the Andhra Pradesh government from reviewing an independent Special Investigation Team's (SIT) report on the Tirumala laddu controversy.
The top court, on October 4, 2024, had set up the five-member independent SIT to probe the allegations of animal fat used in preparing Tirupati laddus to "assuage the feelings of crores of people", while making clear that the court cannot be used as a "political battleground".
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi was told by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy that the state government's decision to appoint the one-member committee amounts to setting up a parallel inquiry that would affect the SIT's probe. The plea also assailed statements made by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the row.
Rejecting the submissions, the CJI noted that the SIT probe is already over and the matter is sub-judice as two chargesheets, including a supplementary one, have been submitted in the court.
"Such an administrative enquiry cannot be called as overlapping with the criminal proceedings which led to the chargesheet and the supplementary chargesheet," the CJI said.
"There is no conflict of interest/overlapping, and the scope of the investigation/enquiry, having been well demarcated, shows that apprehension of the petitioner does not have a solid foundation. Let both processes continue strictly in accordance with the law," the court said.
Swamy argued that the state government's move undermines the authority of the SIT, constituted earlier by the Supreme Court itself to probe irregularities surrounding the laddus distributed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the SIT has completed its investigation and filed its final report.
He underlined that according to the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) manual, if administrative lapses not connected to a criminal matter are found during a probe, then those have to be intimated to the state government, and as the SIT has found certain administrative lapses, the Andhra Pradesh government's panel is looking into those.
The panel replaced the state government's SIT, constituted on September 26, 2024, following the politically-sensitive row over the alleged use of animal fat in the laddus.
The controversy erupted after Naidu's claim that animal fat was used in preparing Tirupati laddus during the previous Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led regime in the southern state.
The YSR Congress Party has accused Naidu of levelling "heinous allegations" against it for political gains, while the ruling Telugu Desam Party in the state has circulated a laboratory report to back its claim.
A batch of pleas, including those seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged use of animal fat in making the laddus, was then filed in the apex court.
