World Yoga Day 2017: PM Narendra Modi performs yoga with participants in Lucknow.
It was a rainy start to the third edition of International Yoga Day. This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Lucknow where he is performing yoga along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and 51,000 participants at Ramabhai Ambedkar Sabha Sthal. The NDA's choice for President, Ram Nath Kovind, performed yoga at Central Park in Delhi. Indian missions in the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States, among other countries, are holding programmes on yoga with participants from various sections of society. The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Yoga Day on December 11, 2014.
Here are the live updates of International Yoga Day 2017:
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman performed yoga in Palakkad, Kerala.
President Pranab Mukherjee told a gathering of enthusiastic children, youths and elderly people at Rashtrapati Bhawan, "Regular practice of yoga will not only help you have a fit body and a sound mind, but it will also take care of all disorders -- mental and otherwise."
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans performed yoga at a freezing temperature of -25 degrees in Ladakh.
"Compliments to everyone on #YogaDay #IDY2017," tweeted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
4,000 people at the iconic Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company in the UAE.
Yoga on-board INS Jalashwa & INS Kirch in the Bay of Bengal.
Ram Nath Kovind, NDA's choice for President, is at Delhi's Connaught Place
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is performing yoga in Central Park, Connaught Place.
Yoga session for BSF personnel, conducted by Isha Foundation.
Yogi Adityanath performing warming up exercises.
Many people, who have been practicing for over a week, have been waiting since 3 am at the Yoga Day venue in Lucknow, reports NDTV's Alok Pandey.
At the Lucknow venue, the crowd is being made to do neck bending asanas.
The Prime Minister steps down from the stage, joins the crowd in the ground and sits on his yoga mat.
PM Modi: I urge everyone to make yoga a part of their lives
The account of Yogi Adityanath tweeted this stunning panoramic image of the rain-drenched venue.
PM Modi: Many countries who do not even know our language or culture but Yoga has connected India to the world
PM jokes about putting yoga mats to good use when it rains.
PM Modi has started his address to the crowd before he performs yoga.
"I welcome the Prime Minister to Lucknow and am happy he is joining the Yoga Day celebrations here with us," says Yogi Adityanath.
Yogi Adityanath is addressing the crowd.
Dressed in a white T-shirt, PM Modi arrives on the stage at Lucknow's Ramabai Ambedkar Sthal. Yogi Adityanath sticks to his signature saffron clothes.
Yoga guru Ramdev has started performing the asanas, Amit Shah and others join him.
Meanwhile, in Lucknow, yoga mats were the new umbrellas where it was pouring.
BJP chief Amit Shah, yoga guru Ramdev and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani have started with their meditation in Ahmedabad.
Yoga enthusiasts at Trafalgar Square in London
Indian missions are also holding programmes on Yoga with participants from various sections of the society
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will perform Yoga along with 51,000 participants at Lucknow's Ramabhai Ambedkar Sabha Sthal.
The third edition of International Yoga Day have begun today in Lucknow