Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 2nd International Yoga Day celebrations in Chandigarh early on Tuesday morning, while President Pranab Mukherjee launched them at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. Modi led around 30,000 people at a mass demonstration at Capitol Complex in Chandigarh, and called it a life discipline, while urging more people to take up the practise. He also announced two yoga awards to be given next year for the first time, for best contribution to yoga in India and one for best contribution to yoga internationally.

Besides Rashtrapati Bhavan, Yoga Day events will be held at at least seven other places in the capital, including at Connaught Place, where around 10,000 people are expected to join. Fifty-seven ministers will lead yoga sessions at different cities across India on Tuesday, including 10 ministers in Uttar Pradesh. In the run-up to Tuesday’s celebrations, the prime minister on Monday launched a commemorative postal stamp on the Surya Namaskara.

In 2015, the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre held Yoga Day celebrations for the first time on June 21. India had also proposed naming the day International Yoga Day at the United Nations, which was taken up by 177 nations, NDTV reported.