Former India captain Mr Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced his retirement from international cricket.

He announced his retirement by posting a slideshow video of his journey yesterday on his instagram. He wrote – “Thanks • Thanks a lot for your love and support throughout. From 19:29 hours, consider me as retired.” The boy from Ranchi, who made his ODI debut in 2004, changed the face of Indian cricket with his calm demeanour, sharp understanding of the game and astute leadership qualities.

One of the most admired and respected cricketers, Dhoni is also among the most successful captains in world cricket. It was under his leadership that India lifted the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 after having led India to triumph in the ICC World T20 in its maiden edition of the tournament held in 2007 in South Africa. With India winning the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 in England, Dhoni became the first and is still the only captain till date to have won all three ICC Trophies.

While his heroics in the limited-overs formats are well documented, it was also under his leadership that India became the No. 1 Test side in 2009 and the team stayed at the top for over 600 days.

Achievements as a Captain:

He is the only captain who won all three major ICC tournaments.

He captained India 331 times across all formats which is the most by any captain followed by Ricky Ponting (324 matches).

He led India 199 times in ODI which is the highest by any Indian captain and third overall.

In ODI, he has an average of 53.92 as captain which is second highest after AB de villier (minimum 2000 runs). He has the highest average of 70.47 in 2009.

Dhoni is the only captain to lead an international team atleast 50 times in each format.

Under the leadership of Dhoni, India won the 2007 World T20, the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. He led India in six finals of limited-over tournaments involving five or more teams and India won four of them, which is the joint most by any captain for a team in limited-over internationals.

Dhoni won 110 ODI matches as a captain, which is the second most by any player. Ponting is at the first place in the list by winning 165 ODIs.

MS Dhoni scored 6,633 runs as a captain in ODIs, which is the second most by any captain after Ponting’s 8,497 runs.

Dhoni led India in 72 T20Is, which is also the most by a captain out of which won 41 matches which is the most by any captain.

Dhoni hit 126 sixes as a captain in ODIs in his career, which is the most by any player in ODIs.

Indian Cricket team is surely going to miss the best captain who has led the team in very tough situations, a wicket-keeper who was faster than the speed of blinking of an eye and a great batsman.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his second death anniversary today.

He said, the country will always remember the outstanding service and efforts of the former Prime Minister towards the nation’s progress.

Former Indian Cricket Team Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his retirement from International Cricket. In a social media post, he thanked everyone for their immense support and love throughout his career.  

Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty-Twenty, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. A right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper, Dhoni is one of the highest run scorers in One Day Internationals (ODIs) with a formidable score of more than 10 thousand runs.

Suresh Raina, another Indian Cricketer has also announced his retirement from International Cricket. In a social media post, he said, it was always a pleasure to play along with Dhoni and following Dhoni’s retirement, he also chose to retire from International Cricket.

The pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir  will resume today. The yatra was under suspension for nearly five months in view of the coronavirus pandemic since March 18.

Chief Executive Officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Ramesh Kumar said during the first week, there will be a cap of 2,000 pilgrims each day of which 1,900 will be from Jammu and Kashmir and the remaining 100 from outside.

Mr Kumar said that people will be allowed to undertake the pilgrimage after registration only through online in order to avoid any assembly at the yatra registration counter. The pilgrims will be required to install the Aarogya Setu App on their mobile phones. Wearing face masks and face cover is mandatory and they will have to undergo thermal scanning at yatra entry points.

Children below 10 years, pregnant women, persons with co-morbidities and those above 60 years have been advised to avoid the pilgrimage.

COVID negative reports of the pilgrims from outside Jammu and Kashmir and also from the red zone districts of the Union Territory will be checked and only those with negative reports will be allowed to move towards Bhawan. Ponies, pithus and palkis will not be allowed to ply on the tracks initially.

The CEO informed that booking and sitting of pilgrims in Atka Aarti area and Shradha Suman Vishesh Pooja will not be allowed till further orders. 

The Manipur government has extended the complete lockdown till August 31 to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state. With 192 more people tested positive yesterday, the tally rose to 4,390. New cases of COVID-19 continue to be detected amongst people who have no travel history outside the state.

A total of 78 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery rate in the state to 55.53 per cent. Manipur now has 1,939 active cases. There have been 13 COVID-19 deaths in the state so far.

The Prime Minister announced that the Centre will soon launch Project Lion and Project Dolphin for the biodiversity conservation of these species to replicate the successes of Project Tiger. In his independence day speech, Mr Modi we have successfully carried forward Project Tiger and Project Elephant. The Tiger population has increased in India. In the coming days, we are starting Project Lion for the Asiatic lions. Mr Modi said Project Dolphin will focus on both river and sea dolphins. He said, this will also give a boost to biodiversity and also create employment opportunities.

The Prime Minister also announced that India will soon have a new cyber security policy. He said his government is aware of the threats arising from cyberspace and their potential impact to India’s society, economy and development. Mr Modi said, changing nature of cyber threats and warfare has prompted India to build a roadmap to overhaul its existing cyber security policy with an eye on challenges like social media, securing critical data and the need for new laws.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). Every Indian will have an Aadhar like ID card containing all relevant information about his/her medical conditions and treatments and tests. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day, Mr Modi said that the initiative which is completely technology based will revolutionise the health sector in India.

The vision of National Digital Health Mission is to create a national digital health ecosystem which provides timely and efficient access to inclusive, affordable, and safe healthcare to all citizens. 

When we talk of the red-light area of any city, the image of women being clad in heavy make-up, adorned in shiny and bling clothes, standing on doors or windows, trying to attract customers by using different techniques comes into our minds instantly. Their livelihood depends on the arrival of customers, the more they arrive, the more these women will be benefited.

But what had happened to them during and after lock-down? How did they survive? Has the pandemic affected their business or has it shaken its roots? While reading an article I read that though their life was going on but the business has slowed down to the unimaginable level. They have opened the gates for their customers for the first week of August but only one or two customers are coming to visit.

They are following every protocol, the new customers are not invited and discouraged to come, those who come are made to wash their body in sanitizers, covered in mask and gloves and the whole place is sanitized like beds, door knobs etc to practice hygiene at the place. Because of lock-down many of the women had gone back to their native places and when the men who show up if they see less women, they don’t return back as they know there are less options.

Their essential needs and daily food needs are fulfilled by the local government, they go to government schools to collect essential items and non-essential needs are fulfilled by those clients who have been attached to the concerned brothels.

It looks from their faces that though business is going through dark phases but soon it will catch up and they will be able to live in bling again.

Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has declared about ‘One Nation One Health Card’ scheme on the event of 74^th Independence Day in his ceremonial speech. This was on cards since long and is going to be implemented in order to transform the health care system of our country. A person’s medical history records including all the treatments, tests etc which the person has undertaken will all be stored at a digital database. The data can be accessed from anywhere by authorised personnel only in the country and now s/he doesn’t have to carry all his/her report files.  

It is not mandatory for now as those who don’t want can opt out from the service, same goes with the hospital as well. Those who want to have an experience of the service will be issued a Unique ID to log in into the portal. This scheme will run in different phases. For starters, Rs 500 crore budget has been allocated for the first phase.

The major issue which people are worried about is the possibility of data breach as the topic of data safety is selling like a hot cake nowadays. But officials are saying that strict privacy features are going to be incorporated to save people’s private data. They clarified more by saying that without permission of willing citizens none of the doctors or hospitals can access the data of health cards.