The Airtel Rising Stars 2013 season, India’s largest U-16 football talent hunt, will kick off in Delhi from Saturday with 80 of the city’s leading schools vying for the Airtel Cup.

It was speech versus speech. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day, took on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and in a veiled attack on his brand of hawkish politics warned that “narrow and sectarian ideologies” would weaken democracy in the country.

Investigations into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case has revealed that Gujarat cops, who earlier investigated the case, did not handle the evidence available on the crime scene properly.

India A captain Cheteshwar Pujara is a satisfied man after his team won the tri-series beating Australia A in the final but had a word of caution for the senior team stating that Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Co. might not get as flat tracks that they got during this series.

In wet and overcast conditions, Bengaluru’s amateur golfer Ankita Kedlaya turned in a sizzling card of two-under to share the opening day’s honours with Vani Kapoor in the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s bid to position himself as the BJP’s PM candidate boomeranged yet again on Thursday, with severe criticism from within. Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani strongly objected to his criticising Dr Manmohan Singh on Independence Day.

Expressing hope that the slowdown in Indian economy would not last long as the government is working hard to salvage the situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said he expected positive impact of the initiatives to open up several sectors to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the coming months.

He can walk into any Indian team on a given day but former captain Kapil Dev decided to keep himself “out” of the best-ever Indian ODI line-up which he feels should be led by another limited overs legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Egypt’s Muslim Brother-hood and its allies suffered a heavy blow from the state security crackdown, their central coordination has been lost and the bloodshed means anger is now “beyond control,” the group said on Thursday.

Exuding confidence that Parliament will soon pass the UPA government’s landmark food security legislation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said, it would ensure cheaper foodgrains to 81 crore poor Indians.