Another somersault of the Modi government - yoga removed from sports category

One year after recognizing yoga as a sport and placing it in the "priority" category alongside other sports like football, swimming, squash and chess, the sports ministry has reversed the decision. Yoga is no longer considered to be a sport.
It may be recalled that the proposal to recognize yoga as a sport had come from the department of personnel and training, which is under the PMO. The Prime Minister Modi had also led countrywide International Yoga Day celebrations for the past two years.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 24 December 2016.

It seems the department (of sports) has studied the matter and has decided that it may not be feasible to hold competitions in yoga. This has been conveyed through a letter from the ministry to the Indian Olympic Association and all recognized national sports federations. The reason is that yoga has various dimensions/ arms in which competitions are not possible. Hence, it cannot be termed as a sport.
The department of ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy (AYUSH) had given its go-ahead and within a matter of months yoga was recognized as a sport in September last year. Getting such a status meant all zonal and national competitions in the discipline would be funded by the sports ministry and, those who practice yoga would get a pie of the sports quota.


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KVIC brings out Yogasutra, clothes made of khadi for yoga exercises

The Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched Yogasutra which is a range of clothes and mats made from Khadi to be used while performing yoga exercises. It has been launched first in Gujarat and has been introduced by an Ahmedabad-based company that manufactures eco-friendly and trendy garments in Khadi. The collection includes unisex yoga wear tops and bottoms apart from a gamchha napkin and a mat. This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 18 June 2016.

It is the coming together of two things purely Indian - the khadi and yoga. As the director of KVIC Gujarat has sumed it up - "KVIC is always keen to promote Khadi through its innovative usages. Yoga wear is the need of the hour. With growing awareness about the benefits of yoga and a special interest shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was only natural that we introduce yoga wear." In his opinion, yoga was perhaps the only stream that did not have customised clothes to suit the modern practitioner and creating the Yoga wear collection was a step in the proper direction. With khadi clothes, Yoga exercises would be much more comfortable and meaningful. It was KVIC's contribution in the success of the International Yoga Day on June 21.


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This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 17 June 2016.

In the course of the festival, the International Day of Yoga will also be inaugurate followed by Yoga workshop on June 18. The Ganges-Danube festival will also showcase Indian culture - dance, music, yoga, film and exhibitions. Indian martial art experts and puppet artists would also be performing alongside Hungarian artists who are proficient in Indian art forms.
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India plans to bowl the world over with Yoga - preparations on for 2nd edition

Buoyed by the tremendous response received to the International Yoga Day last year, a repeat performance appears to be on the cards for this year. The Modi government is pulling out all stops to ensure that this time around the event will be an equally impressive one.
It will be scheduled in June and would be a one hour long Yoga protocol as compared to 45 muteness of last year. And, in order to ensure smooth participation by foreigners, advanced yoga retreats would be set up in scenic locations in he country and there would be a mass Yoga demonstration in one of the BJP-ruled states.
Moreover, the government wants to ensure a "100% participation" by all institutes including the IITs, NITs and IISERs with a special 4-minute long 'Yoga Geet' which is to be sung out aloud.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 18 February 2016.

The next Yoga day will be celebrated with considerable fanfare. It has been decided to increase the duration of the common Yoga protocol from the 45 minute long duration practiced last year to an hour long one this time. The additional 15 minutes will be for 'institutional Yoga practice' which will be 'preferably Pranayama, Dhyana, Yoga Nidra and Satsanga'.
In addition, a week long "advanced Yoga retreats and camps" will be organized for foreigner in April-May period at scenic locations like Goa, Mumbai, Mount Abu, Jaipur, Delhi, Mysore, Rishikesh and other tourist destinations. In order to organize these, a token financial assistance will be provided by the Department of AYUSH to leading Yoga institutions.
Last year, the venue was Rajpath in New Delhi where Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated. This year, a similar "major mass Yoga demonstration program on the lines of the International Conference on Yoga" are planned to be organised in one of the BJP ruled states — namely, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh.


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#InternationalYogaDay #Rajpath #NarendraModi Hats off to Prime Minister Narendra Modi – first for getting the UN to agree to accept that 21 June be declared as the International Day of Yoga. His next achievement was to bag two Guinness World Records for organizing a mega event on the occasion at Rajpath, New Delhi.
This has been reported in zeenews.com dated 21 June 2015.

The two records were for 'Largest number of participants' at 35,985 and 'Most number of nationalities' at 84. The earlier figures were 29973 and 49 respectively. The awards were presented to the Ministry of AYUSH by the representatives of Guinness World Records Ms Victoria from UK and Mr. Marco Frigatti from Italy.
The previous Guinness record was held by Vivekananda Kendra which organized a yoga event in Gwalior in 1995 in which 29,973 people had participated. Rajpath breaks that record after 20 years.
AYUSH is the acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy. The Ministry of AYUSH was formed in 9th November 2014 for providing more healthcare to the public.
Incidentally – there are a couple of other exercises like aerobics and pilates that also help to keep people fit and are equally effective. Read more about this here.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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International Yoga Day, India and a probable Guinness World Record

#InternationalYogaDay #UN4Yoga #GuinnessWorldRecord #Rajpath Designating the 21st of June as the International Yoga Day by the United Nations was a feather in the cap of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and, efforts to celebrate it in a befitting manner in India and enter the portals of the Guinness Book of World Records would be the icing on the cake.
On the occasion, reps of Guinness Book and Ernst & Young auditors are likely to be present during the 35-minute demonstration and, the record could be assigned to only one category even though three categories had been proposed.
This has been reported in dnaindia.com dated 4 June 2015.

The Ayush ministry had approached the Guinness Book on three counts – (i) maximum number of people performing yoga at a single venue, (ii) maximum number of people from different nationalities doing yoga at the same time and (iii) maximum number of people doing yoga at the same time across India.
Guinness has rejected the second and third proposals since it would be difficult to assess the number of people doing yoga across the country or in different countries.
The venue would be on the Rajpath in New Delhi and people from all walks of life are expected to join in the event – the presence of celebrities of the silver screen and politicians would make for an interesting photo ops session. (Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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