Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 4: Striking a new chord in the overall development programme for the upcoming engineers, Computer Science and Engineering Department of Yogananda College of Engineering and Technology (YCET) organized an international level quiz competition virtually on ‘Computer Organization and Architecture.”
More than 350 students registered themselves for the event from different States and Union Territories of India as well as from abroad. Out of the 350 students, 245 students appeared in the quiz wherein 65 students scored more than 60 percent marks.
Sixty one students from YCET, 46 students from other colleges of J&K including 28 from Baba Ghulam Shah University, two from MIET, seven from GCET and nine from Government Polytechnic College for Women Jammu were among the participants.
E-certificates were awarded to all the participants who scored more than 60 percent marks.
The event was organised to test knowledge of young engineers in the field, so that they expand beyond the scopes of their regular curriculum. The competition was a grand success and attracted large energetic participation of the students.
The quiz was conducted by Er Ayushi Gupta, Assistant Professor of CSE/IT Department, whereas the final year students including Vinit Sharma, Akshit Verma, Ritik Gupta, Purvai Gupta, and Varuni were coordinators of the event.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 4: Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) Jammu -Kashmir and Ladakh, Ministry of Youth affairs and Sports in coordination with NSS organized virtually State Level Youth Parliament Festival 2021, today.
About 44 participants hailing from Youth Clubs and Mahila Mandal, affiliated with NYKS and NSS from 20 districts of J&K UT and two districts of Ladakh UT participated.
The festival was inaugurated by Shamsher Singh Manhas, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. While addressing the participants through virtual mode, he stated that the Prime Minister of India shared the idea of youth during his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on December 31, 2017. “The first National Youth Festival was organized in January-February 2019 wherein Prime Minister of India had addressed the youth,” Member Parliament said.
Bikram Singh Gill, State Director Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan J&K and Ladakh informed that District Level Youth Parliaments were organized at Jammu, Srinagar and Udhampur on December 28 and 29 respectively on selected five topics including Climate Change is a bigger threat than COVID-19, Greening the Indian Economy, Harnessing the power of women, Supercharging Youth for a New India and Building a start-up innovation, eco system in India.
Gill also informed that the 1st and 2nd winners of the District level and 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners at State level will participate in National Youth Parliament, New Delhi on January 12 and 13 wherein three best speakers will be awarded with Rs 2 lakh, 1.50 lakh and 1 lakh respectively.
Sheikh Yamina from Srinagar stood first, whereas Srishti Koul of Jammu bagged 2nd rank and Nayeeda Choudhary of secured 3rd rank in state level event.
Prof Gharu Ram Bhagat, DDC Member, Musavir Ahmed (KAS) NSS Programme Coordinator, Kashmir University, Srinagar, Dr Hema Gandotra, Assistant Professor, Shalini Rana Assistant Prof and HoD English GCoE Jammu, Reecha Gupta (Artist), Ram Paul Dogra, Journalist and social activist, Dr Ghulam Jeelani Zargar were among jury members of the event.

CHRISTCHURCH, Jan 4: Kane Williamson posted his third century in consecutive matches this summer and shared an unbroken 215-run partnership with Henry Nicholls which steered New Zealand close to a first-innings lead over Pakistan on the second day of the second cricket Test.
Williamson followed his innings of 251 in the first Test against the West Indies and 129 in the first Test against Pakistan with an unbeaten 112 on Monday as New Zealand reached 286-3 by stumps in reply to Pakistan’s 297.
Nicholls ended the day 89 not out, following his 174 in the second Test against the West Indies and his 56 in the first Test against Pakistan.
Williamson’s century was his 24th in Tests and again came at a crucial time for New Zealand as it played under the pressure of Pakistan’s impressive first innings total, achieved as it batted first after losing the toss.
New Zealand lost three wickets on either side of lunch — Tom Latham (33) and Tom Blundell (16) after a 52-run opening partnership and Ross Taylor (12) early in the second session when it was in trouble at 71-3.
Williamson and Nicholls batted slowly, cautiously through the middle session to re-establish the innings, adding only 79 runs and grafting the first 50 runs of their partnership from 105 balls.
The New Zealand run rate dropped to around 2.6 during the session as Pakistan’s bowlers kept up an accurate attack.
But Williamson accelerated as tea approached, taking a series of boundaries close to the interval and keeping up the tempo into the evening session as the aging ball made the Pakistan attack less threatening.
He went from 78 to 94 with four boundaries from the 60th over bowled by Naseem Shah; moved on to 95 with a single, to 99 with a pulled four from Faheem Ashraf and then to his century with a further boundary from Faheem.
Williamson’s half century had taken almost three hours and 105 deliveries; he went on to his century in 239 minutes from 140 balls, adding the second 50 from 35 deliveries in an hour.
Pakistan was helpless as Williamson and New Zealand’s total mounted and as they watched their first-innings total almost eclipsed.
The Hagley Oval pitch was troubling for batsmen on the first day and for most of the first two sessions Monday. There was enough pace and bounce, enough lateral movement both in the air and off the pitch to make batting a little precarious.
Pakistan overcame that on day one with innings of 93 from Azhar Ali, 61 from Mohammad Rizwan and 48 from Faheem which gave it a total close to 300 which was impressive in the conditions.
Latham and Blundell gave New Zealand a solid start but the testing nature of the pitch was still evident with the loss of quick wickets around lunch.
Blundell was trapped lbw by Faheem and Latham’s was an extraordinary dismissal: he edged into the slip cordon where Shan Masood at second slip defected the ball to Haris Sohail at first who held a reflex catch.
Masood needed no assistance with the catch which removed Taylor from the bowling of Mohammad Abbas.
Nicholls had some luck as he built his innings. On 3 he edged a ball from Shaheen Afridi to Rizwan behind the stumps and was walking when the television umpire called the no-ball which granted the New Zealander a fortunate reprieve. At 86 he was dropped by Rizwan off Afridi in the second over of the second new ball.
In between, Nicholls passed 2,000 test runs but he ended the day limping after sustaining a calf muscle injury.
Williamson had fewer anxious moments, mainly due often to his ability to leave the ball late outside off stump, his soft hands which reduced the danger of catches at slip or gully and his recognition that driving wasn’t cautious on a pitch which still offered some late movement from the seam. (AP)

NEW DELHI, Jan 4: Keeping the fast-evolving COVID-19 situation in mind, Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh says his side will need to be “mentally prepared” for the several obstacles it might face on its way to the Tokyo Olympics.
Pushed back by a year due to the pandemic, the quadrennial sporting extravaganza is slated to be held in July-August.
“The biggest learning from last year was to not let external factors affect our goal. There could be many uncertainties but we need to only worry about what’s within our control and that is to work towards being our best.
“There could be several challenges leading up to the Olympic Games this year and we need to be mentally prepared for it,” Manpreet said, putting things into perspective.
With only 200 days to go for the Olympics, Manpreet and Rani, the women’s team skipper, believe the players in respective core groups will have to give their 100 per cent to be able to achieve their goals in Tokyo.
“The next 200 days is going to be the most important period of our lives. Each one of us have to give our 100 per cent in training and in competition if we want to see ourselves make the Indian Team for Tokyo,” stated the midfielder.
Rani agreed that in the next few months the players will need to up their game in all aspects.
“In the previous national camp which lasted over four months, we have really worked hard to reach the level we were previously at. In the next few months, our focus will be on improving further in all aspects of the game.
“Our competitions this year will show us where we stand and what needs to be improved. From here on, each one of us have to work on being the best,” said Rani, a Khel Ratna awardee.
She stated that players should not take their place in the team for granted and they will have to showcase that they are indeed the best to make the cut.
“I look forward to good competition within the team as it brings out the best in us. Another thing we need to focus on is our mental fitness and also take care of our bodies in the lead up to the Games to avoid injuries,” Rani stated. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Jan 4:The All India Tennis Association (AITA) President Anil Jain on Monday flagged off the ‘High Performance Training Camp’ for junior boys at the R K Khanna Tennis Stadium here.
A total of 21 AITA-ranked junior players have joined the three-day camp, which will end on Wednesday. They will go through mental and physical conditioning apart from fine-tuning of tennis skills.
The camp will be headed by national coach Zeeshan Ali, who will be assisted by former players Ashutosh Singh and Saurabh Singh.
“The AITA endeavours to bring life back into tennis through a ‘Return to Tennis’ styled project which includes ‘High-Performance Training Camps’ for top-ranked players on the AITA Junior circuit,” AITA said in a media release.
Also present at the event were AITA Vice President Anil Khanna and Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) President Rohit Rajpal.
“It is a new year and a fresh start of Tennis activities in the country under the ‘New Normal’ environment during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jain.
“It is our vision to conduct more camps in future and eventually select the talented tennis players to join the ‘National Tennis Centre’ where we would try to further improve their different aspects of the sport like skills, game strategy, strength, conditioning, diet and nutrition along with sports science and psychology,” he added.
Jain said the goal of these camps is to develop “Super 30s” in each category.
“The goal is to develop the Super 30s in each category and make our presence felt strongly on the International tennis arena,” he added. (PTI)

MELBOURNE, Jan 4: The Indian cricket team and its support staff have returned negative in the latest COVID-19 tests conducted here ahead of the third Test against Australia in Sydney, the BCCI said on Monday.
The game is due to start on January 7 and The Indian team landed in Sydney on Monday as scheduled.
“Playing members of the Indian Cricket Team and support staff underwent an RT-PCR Test for COVID-19 on January 3, 2021. All tests have returned negative results,” the BCCI said in a short statement.
The statement came a couple of days after five Indian players — vice-captain Rohit Sharma, opener Shubman Gill, stumper Rishabh Pant, pacer Navdeep Saini and batsman Prithvi Shaw — were placed in isolation when a video of them at an indoor restaurant was posted by a fan on Twitter.
Cricket Australia had announced that a joint investigation with the BCCI was on to determine whether it amounted to a breach of bio-security protocol for the series.
The five were, however, allowed to train and travel with the team for the match in Sydney. According to sources in the Indian contingent, they have been cleared to play in the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
All the players and support staff returning negative for COVID-19 is welcome news for the Indian team amid the controversy around the alleged breach of bio-security protocols.
Despite the announcement of a joint investigation by BCCI and Cricket Australia on the alleged breach, there has been no word on it from either of the two boards in the last two days.
According to the bio-security protocols set by CA, players are allowed to sit outside but not allowed to dine inside restaurants. The players, according to team sources, have maintained that they went in to escape a drizzle.
It is understood that the controversy has not gone down well with the travelling team and it is not amused with how CA has so far handled the issue.
The latest development is preceded by Australian media reports that the fourth Test in Brisbane has been jeopardised as the tourists are reluctant to travel there in view of stricter quarantine rules.
But the final Test, starting at the Gabba from Janauary 15, is on as of now.
The four-match series is currently locked 1-1 after India fought back with an eight-wicket triumph in the Melbourne Test following a humiliating loss in the opener in Adelaide. (PTI)