The three-day sports event on the theme ‘Making India as a Sporting Nation’ is organised by FICCI in association with Sports Authority of India. This focus is on strategic dialogues to bring together senior decision makers and renowned Indian and international sports industry players to deliberate on profitable promotion and grassroots development of sports in the country.

Sharan also said that the setting up of Sector Skills Council in Sports is a big step towards making India a sporting nation in future. The council will devise ways to reduce skills gap and shortage improve productivity, hone the skills of the sector work force and improve learning.

Sharan said that sports in India has witnessed stagnation in the last few decades.

The challenges in the sector are numerous but some of which call for immediate attention such as development of a structured system at the grass root level to engage young boys and girls in the age group of 8-10 years in various sports; identifying and nurturing young talent based on their performance, talent and calibre; providing professional training, sporting equipment and wholesome nourishment to the identified sports persons; organising regular competitions of international standard at the domestic level to measure the performance of local sports persons; setting up sports science and sports medicine centres to support the sports fraternity and providing alternative viable vocational career options to players to ensure their livelihood.

Sharan urged the private sector to participate and partner with the government and the apex chamber to promote sports in the country. The stakeholders need to actively engage at all levels to improve India’s ranking as a sporting nation.

Even as discussions with BJP over his party’s role in the new Maharashtra government remained inconclusive, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday held a meeting of party leaders in Mumbai.

Sena leaders Anil Desai and Subhash Desai were present in the meeting at Sena Bhavan here to discuss the party’s strategy ahead of the state Assembly session starting on November 10, sources said.

The meeting assumes significance as it comes just a day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that Sena representatives will not be inducted into the state’s BJP government before it wins the trust vote.

“Pehle vishwas phir vistar (first the trust vote and then expansion),” Fadnavis had said yesterday, when asked by reporters if Shiv Sena ministers would be inducted before his government seeks a trust vote in the Assembly on November 12.

Fadnavis’ statement had peeved the Sena with a party MP saying BJP was not interested in getting it on board with respect and that Shiv Sena would sit in the opposition if no “respectable solution” to end the uncertainty over its participation in the government was found by Saturday.

With 63 MLAs, Shiv Sena is the second largest party in the 288-member Assembly after BJP’s 121.

Call me a hopeful fool, but I think it can be done.” So says Dhruve Sehgal, the man who wants to be India’s own Tom Ford.

The New Delhi-based fashion designer and manufacturer is buying into the story of India’s economic rebirth, as told by the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Six months ago, Modi swept to power in a landslide on the promise of getting India’s fast-growth model back on track.

The country has experienced less than 5% GDP growth in the past two years, yet the prime minister is targeting 7% to 8% within the next three.

Modi hopes people like Sehgal will drive that growth as he focuses on unshackling small and medium-size companies.

Manufacturing makes up only about 14% of the country’s economic activity. Compare that with China’s 34% of GDP and it’s easy to see why Modi is pushing a “Make In India” campaign.

Small business has always been neglected by the Indian government. Many of the rules and regulations governing them are nothing short of “archaic,” said R. Narayan, an official with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

For proof, look no further than a recent World Bank report on best countries to do business in. India’s ranking fell two places to a dismal 142 out of 189 countries.

To start a business in India takes an average 28 days. In virtually all developed economies it’s less than a week.

“It’s a bad place to do business, because of the amount of time it takes to do a little change,” said fashion designer Sehgal. “For a small project like ours you have to manage everything on your own. You don’t expect help from anyone, anywhere.”

On top of that he has to deal with daily power outages at his three factories — due to India’s creaking and underfunded infrastructure — and the “eyes of greedy people,” meaning those he has to pay off.

Modi is promising to change all that. “Cut the red tape and roll out the red carpet” is one of the administration’s many slogans.

As a marketing campaign it’s been successful. A new poll shows Modi’s personal approval rating among urban Indians — almost half the population — is an astonishing 92%.

But change may be less revolutionary than evolutionary. He wants members of the country’s vast bureaucracy to be more accountable and more efficient — basically to do their jobs better. And he is turning to experts, rather than ministers, to advise on what changes to make.

Sehgal, for one, said his expectations have risen dramatically. “I think it’s going to change soon.”

And Narayan said that Modi will he helped by the nation’s pent-up demand for reform.

What Modi has that none of his predecessors have had for the past 30 years is a sweeping mandate as a result of his crushing electoral victory. The voters have put their faith in him, and now it’s his turn to repay that trust.

But at the moment there’s little in the way of actual improvement. Modi now has to show this boisterous democracy of 1.25 billion people that things really are different.

Cyberbullying and rise in self-harm highlighted by MPs voicing concern over violent video games and sexting

Cyberbullying and websites advocating anorexia and self-harm are posing a danger to the mental wellbeing of children and young people, MPs found. Photograph: Alamy

Violent video games, the sharing of indecent images on mobile phones, and other types of digital communications, are harming young people’s mental health, MPs warned on Wednesday, amid evidence of big increases in self-harm and serious psychological problems among the under-18s.

Cyberbullying and websites advocating anorexia and self-harm are also posing a danger to the mental wellbeing of children and young people, the Commons health select committee says in its report.

Sarah Wollaston, chair of the committee, who was a GP for 24 years before becoming a Tory MP in 2010, said: “In the past if you were being bullied it might just be in the classroom. Now it follows [you] way beyond the walk home from school. It is there all the time. Voluntary bodies have not suggested stopping young people using the internet. But for some young people it’s clearly a new source of stress.”

However, the MPs said they had found no evidence that the emerging digital culture was behind the worrying rise, of up to 25% to 30% a year, in numbers of children and young people seeking treatment for mental health problems.

The cross-party group acknowledges that forms of online and social communication are now central to the lives of under-18s, but says that a government inquiry into the effects is needed because of the potential for harm.

“For today’s children and young people, digital culture and social media are an integral part of life … this has the potential to significantly increase stress and to amplify the effects of bullying,” the committee’s report says.

Some young people experience “bullying, harassment and threats of violence” when online, the MPs say. While they did not look into internet regulation in depth during their six-month inquiry, they concluded: “In our view sufficient concern has been raised to warrant a more detailed consideration of the impact of the internet on children’s and young people’s mental health, and in particular the use of social media and impact of pro-anorexia, self-harm and other inappropriate websites.”

It calls on the Department of Health and NHS England’s joint taskforce, now investigating, alongside bodies such as the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, the mental health of under-18s, to assess the impact of social media.

The MPs appreciate the move for e-safety to be taught at all four education key-stages in England. But they also want the Department for Education, as part of a review of mental health education in schools, to “ensure that links between online safety, cyberbullying, and maintaining and protecting emotional wellbeing and mental health are fully articulated”.

Wollaston voiced concern that “sexting” (sharing indecent photographs) could be traumatic for vulnerable young women persuaded to pose for intimate pictures then finding the shots shared widely. Some would end up being harassed, she said. Sexting had “become normalised in some school environments”, she said. “We need much better education about the dangers of sexting.” She also expressed unease about the impact of violent video games played by young people. Parents, she said, should do more to check what their offspring were doing online in their free time and talk to them because “if they are spending two hours a night doing that, is that harming their child?”

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns and media at the charity Young Minds, said: “The 24/7 online world has the potential to massively increase young people’s stress levels and multiplies the opportunities for them to connect with others in similar distress. Websites like Tumblr, where there has been recent media focus on self-harm blogs, must do all they can to limit triggering content and that which encourages self-harming behaviour.”

Russell backed the committee’s view that the internet could also be “a valuable source of support for children and young people with mental health problems”. But, she added that “many professionals feel completely out of touch with, even intimidated by, social media and the net”.

The report paints a grim picture of the growing number of under-18s needing care, often struggling to access it, or becoming an inpatient hundreds of miles from home, as children’s and adolescents’ mental health services tried to cope with budget cuts, lack of staff and too few beds.

“Major problems” in accessing services ends with “children and young people’s safety being compromised while they wait for a bed to become available”, say the MPs.

Services are under such pressure that in some parts of England children only get seen by a psychiatrist if they have already tried to take their own lives at least once.

Despite growing need, criteria for being referred for NHS treatment have been tightened in most of England, the MPs say.

Liz Myers, a consultant psychiatrist with the Cornwall Partnership NHS foundation trust, told the inquiry that its services for the young were receiving 4,000 referrals a year, though were only commissioned by the NHS to do 2,000.

“This has meant that we are necessarily having to prioritise those who have the most urgent and pressing need, and we have no capacity for earlier intervention and very little capacity for seeing those perhaps with the less life-threatening or urgent risky presentations.

“There are increasing waits. It is not okay. We do not want that for our children and young people, but we have to just keep prioritising.”

Hilary Cass, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said failure to tackle emerging problems with young people’s mental health meant the issue was now “a hidden epidemic”.

Mumbai: Shiv Sena today criticised Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his remarks on Vidarbha, saying that instead of speaking about separate statehood, the BJP should concentrate on developing the region.

The Sena also reminded its former ally of the resounding mandate it got in Vidarbha and said the vote was in favour of development and not for a separate statehood.

“The BJP won handsomely in the Vidarbha region in the recently held Assembly elections. But they should not think they have got this mandate to divide Maharashtra. Separating Vidarbha from Maharashtra is like separating a child from its mother,” the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“While on his first visit to Nagpur after becoming the CM, (Devendra) Fadnavis said that Vidarbha will be carved out at an appropriate time. Instead, he should have spoken about the development of the region. He should have spoken about empowering the security agencies in Naxal-hit areas like Gadchiroli and Chandrapur,” the Sena said.

The Sena said that instead of speaking about separation of Vidarbha, the BJP should concentrate on developing the region.

“When a CM who hails from Vidarbha talks about its separation, it is just like the protector The Sena said that instead of speaking about separation of Vidarbha, the BJP should concentrate on developing the region.

“When a CM who hails from Vidarbha talks about its separation, it is just like the protector of Maharashtra getting ready to become a perpetrator or wrongdoer,” it said.

It is “hypocrisy” on the part of BJP to now talk about carving out a separate state, when the same party had accused the Congress of making a mistake when it created Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, it said.

“We only hope that the ‘Fadnavis Express’ runs straight on the path of development of Vidarbha and does not wobble in between. The CM should working towards fulfilling the dreams of 105 martyrs who sacrificed their lives for ‘Akhand (united) Maharashtra,” the Sena said.

More than 200 villagers in northern India have attended an elaborate Hindu wedding ceremony for two monkeys.

The wedding was organised by the owner of the monkeys, who said the male was “like an adopted son” to him.

The ceremony took place on Monday evening in Bettiah district in Bihar state, with the “bride” dressed in an orange frock and the “groom” wearing a yellow T-shirt.

Monkeys are revered idols in Hindu mythology.

The 13-year-old male monkey named Ramu and his bride, a female monkey called Ramdulari, were taken in a procession on top of a flower-bedecked SUV, accompanied by music and dancing. Hundreds of villagers lined the route to greet the “couple”.

Udesh Mahto, a daily wage worker who has three sons, said Ramu was “like my eldest son”.

Mr Mahto brought Ramu from Nepal about seven years ago, and later bought Ramdulari from a village fair.

“Initially they didn’t get along well. But later they began liking each other, so I decided to marry them off,” he said.

Hundreds of people turned up at the wedding procession – the monkeys were changed into new outfits for the ceremony

A local Hindu priest Sunil Shastri “solemnised” the wedding.

“Initially I was wary of performing a monkey wedding, but I later relented after seeing that Mr Mahto was serious about it,” he said. “We picked an auspicious day and time for the ceremony.”

Wedding cards were printed and a band was hired to play at the wedding. Guests were served a feast.

Many people from neighbouring villages turned up to see the procession and take pictures which they posted on social networking sites.

In 2008, some 3,000 people turned up for a similar “wedding” of two monkeys in eastern Orissa state.

The two monkeys, who were kept in chains, were released by their owners after the marriage.

Indian consumers have in recent months shown a penchant for ordering goods like smartphones in short-lived, online sales called “flash sales.” Now Burger King is trying to get them to pre-order its sandwiches — on eBay.

In an apparent attempt to tap into the popularity of flash sales — Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi says it has sold more than 500,000 of its low-cost handsets in India using such methods since July — Burger King is allowing customers to pre-book its Whoppers via online marketplace eBay.

The world’s second-largest burger chain after McDonald’s MCD +0.91% is set to open this month for the first time in the populous country. Cognizant of the religious practices of Hindus and Muslims who comprise the majority of the country’s population, Miami-based Burger King late last week said it would offer chicken, mutton and vegetable versions of its signature Whopper sandwich.

Indian consumers have in recent months shown a penchant for ordering goods like smartphones in short-lived, online sales called “flash sales.” Now Burger King is trying to get them to pre-order its sandwiches — on eBay.

The world’s second-largest burger chain after McDonald’s MCD +0.91% is set to open this month for the first time in the populous country. Cognizant of the religious practices of Hindus and Muslims who comprise the majority of the country’s population, Miami-based Burger King late last week said it would offer chicken, mutton and vegetable versions of its signature Whopper sandwich.

Consumers can use eBay EBAY +1.08% to pre-book their Whopper sandwiches from Burger King BKW -0.34% in India.

Burger King India/eBay

Through Wednesday, customers can pay a promotional price of 128 rupees ($2.08) with a credit card, debit card, or online bank transfer for a Whopper. (It’s unclear how much of a discount the price represents.) Buyers then receive a voucher via courier that they can redeem at a new Burger King shop in New Delhi’s Select City Walk Mall when it opens on Sunday. Those who order the sandwich also receive a T-shirt.

Apart from the discounted price and the shirt, however, it is unclear why consumers would buy the sandwiches online ahead of time, when they could presumably be bought quickly in the restaurant.

On Burger King India’s Facebook page, some users were skeptical of the idea. “Pre booking burgers hahaha! Wtf,” wrote one user. Others, however, posted screen shots showing confirmation of their bookings.

Burger King declined to comment, referring queries to the eBay listings. An eBay spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The promotion “will definitely catch the attention of consumers but I will be surprised if it translates into a large volume of sales,” said Neha Dharia, a Bangalore, India-based technology analyst at research firm Ovum.

“However, I think it’s an interesting campaign and it cleverly uses the e-commerce craze that has taken over the country,” she noted.

To be sure, the burger chain has its work cut out for it if it wants to approach Xiaomi’s numbers. As of Tuesday morning, Burger King has sold 260 chicken sandwiches, 154 vegetarian Whoppers, and 199 mutton sandwiches, according to their eBay listing pages.

The Japanese government Monday announced that former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will be conferred the Imperial Decoration for his “significant contribution” towards boosting bilateral ties.

Manmohan Singh is among the 57 foreign recipients who would be honoured with the 2014 Autumn Imperial Decorations.

The former Indian prime minister, who was at the helm of the country for a decade till the 2014 elections, is the first Indian to be conferred the “Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers”, the Japanese embassy said here in a statement.

The former Indian prime minister, who was at the helm of the country for a decade till the 2014 elections, is the first Indian to be conferred the “Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers”, the Japanese embassy said here in a statement.

It said Manmohan Singh will be conferred the honour “in recognition of his significant contributions to the enhancement of relations and the promotion of friendship between Japan and India for about 35 years”.

“The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers is a high level National Order rarely awarded to those who are recognised for their distinguished contributions. Manmohan Singh is the first recipient of the order.

Robert Hannigan, head of Britain’s surveillance agency, has accused US technology companies of becoming ‘the command and control networks of choice’ for terrorists. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

Privacy has never been “an absolute right”, according to the new director of GCHQ, who has used his first public intervention since taking over at the helm of Britain’s surveillance agency to accuse US technology companies of becoming “the command and control networks of choice” for terrorists.

Robert Hannigan said a new generation of freely available technology has helped groups like Islamic State (Isis) to hide from the security services and accuses major tech firms of being “in denial”, going further than his predecessor in seeking to claim that the leaks of Edward Snowden have aided terror networks.

GCHQ and sister agencies including MI5 cannot tackle those challenges without greater support from the private sector, “including the largest US technology companies which dominate the web”, Hannigan argued in an opinion piece written for the Financial Times just days into his new job.

Arguing that GCHQ needed to enter into the debate about privacy, Hannigan said: “I think we have a good story to tell. We need to show how we are accountable for the data we use to protect people, just as the private sector is increasingly under pressure to show how it filters and sells its customers’ data.

“GCHQ is happy to be part of a mature debate on privacy in the digital age. But privacy has never been an absolute right and the debate about this should not become a reason for postponing urgent and difficult decisions.”

Hannigan, who was born in Gloucestershire, not far from GCHQ’s base, has advised the prime minister on counter-terrorism, intelligence and security policy, goes on to take aim at the role of major technology companies. A senior Foreign Office official, Hannigan succeeded Sir Iain Lobban at the Cheltenha. Hannigan said a new generation of freely available technology has helped groups like Islamic State (Isis) to hide from the security services and accuses major tech firms of being “in denial”, going further than his predecessor in seeking to claim that the leaks of Edward Snowden have aided terror networks.

GCHQ and sister agencies including MI5 cannot tackle those challenges without greater support from the private sector, “including the largest US technology companies which dominate the web”, Hannigan argued in an opinion piece written for the Financial Times just days into his new job.

Arguing that GCHQ needed to enter into the debate about privacy, Hannigan said: “I think we have a good story to tell. We need to show how we are accountable for the data we use to protect people, just as the private sector is increasingly under pressure to show how it filters and sells its customers’ data.

“GCHQ is happy to be part of a mature debate on privacy in the digital age. But privacy has never been an absolute right and the debate about this should not become a reason for postponing urgent and difficult decisions.”

Hannigan, who was born in Gloucestershire, not far from GCHQ’s base, has advised the prime minister on counter-terrorism, intelligence and security policy, goes on to take aim at the role of major technology companies. A senior Foreign Office official, Hannigan succeeded Sir Iain Lobban at the Cheltenha