
Around 10,000 volunteers participate in NLCIL's International Yoga Day event
The NLCIL organised one its biggest mass events, with an estimated 10,000 volunteers participating, during the 11th International Day of Yoga (IDY) celebrations nation-wide on Saturday.
A press note said yoga practice sessions were organised as part of the IDY '25 themed 'Yoga for One Earth, One Health' at the Bharathi Stadium, schools, and industrial units in Neyveli in addition to external project sites and attached offices across States. Participants performed simple asanas, pranayama, and meditation.
Prasanna Kumar Motupalli, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), NLCIL, led the mass demonstration of the Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) and yoga practice at Bharathi Stadium, urged participants to practise yoga regularly to lead a healthy life. He later planted saplings of the Asoka tree near the stadium as a symbol of peace and harmony.
Suresh Chandra Suman, Director (Mines) & P&P (AC), Samir Swarup, and Director (HR), M. Venkatachalam, Director (Power), senior officials, students, representatives of recognised trade unions, associations, welfare federations and cultural organisations also took part in the celebrations.
At the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (Jipmer) community hall, scores of medical students, staff and family and members of the public undertook yoga practice led by 137 resource persons trained in CYP. Vir Singh Negi, JIPMER Director, said yoga therapy significantly reduces the inflammatory biomarkers as evidenced by many studies conducted in JIPMER and elsewhere. He also highlighted the role of yoga in managing chronic conditions, and especially management of stress which is the need of the hour. S. Rangabashiam, Deputy Director Administration, also spoke.
As a prelude to IDY, a workshop on stress management 'Mindfulness and Melody: The art of stress relief' led a panel of internal and external expert faculty, including tutors from Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. A webinar on 'Harnessing the Healing Power of Yoga: From Mind-Body Balance to Clinical Applications' featured seven eminent speakers from Jipmer and institutions abroad.
Pondicherry University's Directorate of Physical Education and Sports, in collaboration with the Siddha Regional Research Institute (under the Ministry of Ayush) and Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, also organised events to mark IDY 2025 at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium.
More than 300 participants experienced the CYP. P. Prakash Babu, Vice Chancellor, M. Elayaraja, Director of Sports (i/c), Pondicherry University, K. Tharanikkarasu, Director (SEI&RR), Shyamala Rajkumar, Research Officer (Siddha), HOD - DCR, Siddha Regional Research Institute, R. Thangalakshmi, Tamil Nadu Pranth Pramukh, Vivekananda Kendra, M. Vijay Kumar, chief librarian, Vengat Rao, Dean, Student Welfare and P. Thenmozhi, Research Officer (Siddha) participated.
The IDY celebration was preceded by a week-long yoga practice workshop in Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium.
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