Reactions from political parties over the anointment of Gujarat strongman Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate has been on predictable lines with the Congress denouncing him as a divisive leader and the BJP leaders and allies of the NDA endorsing their poster boy.

As the likelihood of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York later this month grows stronger, India has said that a conducive atmosphere is essential for the meeting.

Indian football’s honeymoon with the South Asian Football Federation Championships is over. Since its advent in 1993, India had won in six out of the nine competitions and in Dhaka, 2009 emerged victorious with a second string squad.

A batch of 350 cadets, including 70 women, were today commissioned into the Army on successful completion of short service commission training at the Officer’s Training Academy (OTA) here today.

In a prescient sort of way, the world outside began warming to Narendra Modi just a little less than a year ago. And now that Narendra Modi has been anointed the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, it’s expected that more foreign governments will warm up to Mr Modi, seeking to end the pariah status many bestowed upon him post the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The decision of the Indian cricket board’s disciplinary committee to ban cricketers accused in the spot-fixing scandal made it judgment day here in the capital on Friday following a city court sentencing those found guilty in the murderous gangrape of a 23-year-old woman paramedic in December last year to hang till death.

ONGC booked their maiden Durand Cup semi-finals berth, upsetting I-League runners-up Pune FC 2-1 in a quarter-final league match at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Friday.

Asserting that the UPA government has taken steps to improve transparency in the functioning of the government, union minister of minority affairs K Rahman Khan on Saturday claimed that there was no corruption in the country.

With BJP leadership declaring Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its PM candidate, speculation is rife within the party that Mr Modi might resign from the post of campaign committee chief as he cannot lead his own campaign and the post might be given to Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj or her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. However, there was no official confirmation.

Sreesanth’s reaction to ban from cricket was almost spontaneous — a one-liner in his twitter account. “Been tracking the news channels... Me getting a life ban??!! Very surprising,” Sreesanth posted and soon deleted the tweet.