On Sunday, India invited history for an elegant cup of tea, demolishing Thomas Cup royalty, Indonesia, 3-0 in the finals. Denying them their 15th, while winning their first ever, Against all expectations. A dozen players in Bangkok and their coaches there and in India though, believed throughout. It’s a little secret that they’ve known for a month now: Indian men were going to win the Thomas Cup.
All England champion and badminton head coach Pullela Gopichand on the enormity of the Thomas Cup win: “In my time, we’ve lost 1-5 to Sri Lanka and 2-5 to Pakistan even. For us to qualify for the 16-team elite event used to be mighty, and when we beat Korea and Japan to qualify for that Thomas Cup and Uber Cup (for women) in 1999 Delhi, we thought that’s great. Both Prakash (Padukone) sir and I used to play both singles and doubles, we didn’t even have doubles specialists then. We would be given two Yonex T-shirts and we would be on our way to these events. So you can understand where we started and the enormity of this.”
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The $60-million scandal involving loans and grants by a little-known UN agency that came to light last month also included a $2.5 million investment to build 50,000 affordable houses in Goa in 2019. However, the project never took off even though a presentation was made to officials for the construction of the proposed housing units.
In this edition of Idea Exchangeformer Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda talks about what the Congress needs to do to give a good fight to the BJPpreparing for the 2024 elections and giving farmers their due.
From the Front Page
Having suffered staggering election defeats since 2014 under his leadership and that of his mother Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi admitted that the Congress’s “connection” with the people is “broken”, and needs to be repaired urgently. As curtains came down on the party’s brainstorming session in Udaipur, there were indications that Rahul is likely to return as Congress president later this year. While Sonia delivered a short speech, Rahul spoke at length.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is traveling to Lumbini in Nepal today to lay the foundation stone for a Buddhist cultural center to coincide with Buddha Purnima. PM Modi’s brief visit will also focus on bringing soft power to the centrestage of India-Nepal relations while also marking India’s formal presence at the holy site that’s barely 10 km away from the border.
The Adani group has acquired Zurich-based Holcim’s cement business in India for $10.5 billion (about Rs 81,000 crore) in India’s largest ever M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space. Through its subsidiaries, Holcim holds 63.19% in Ambuja Cements Ltd and 54.53% in ACC Ltd (of which 50.05% is held through Ambuja Cements). This is the largest ever acquisition by Adani, which beat the JSW and Aditya Birla groups to the deal.
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Expressing his views over the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi-led government, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah said that it had been a “temporary” provision in the Constitution, but could not have been removed as it formed the basis for accession of J&K to India. “At that time, the resolution was taken to the United Nations Security Council. On the basis of that resolution, Article 370 was not given a permanent status,” he said.
,Mahaul ajeeb sa hai (the atmosphere is strange),” said Mushrat’s brother, Imtiaz, referring to the grief and loss that seemed to pervade lanes of Bhagya Vihar, with neighbor after neighbor reeling under the tragedy of the fire breaking out at the commercial building in Mundka. Located less than 5 km from the building in Mundka, Bhagya Vihar painted a picture of a colony in mourning. Of the 27 confirmed deaths, 21 were women. Many of them were from Bhagya Vihar.
Tata Sons has held exploratory talks with Singapore Airlines, its joint-venture partner in Vistara, for a potential merger of the airline with Air India, multiple sources told The Indian Express, Singapore Airlines is learn to have asked for time until the end of next year to decide whether it wants to go ahead. While Air India is now fully owned by the Tata Group, Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between the Tatas and SIA.
And finally
Chief Justice of India NV Raman was in Srinagar This weekend where he began an address invoking Urdu poet Ali Jawad Zaidi and read out a couplet in Urdu. The CJI said that although he has visited Kashmir several times, he is always moved by the hospitality and kindness of the people there. Incidentally, the petitions challenging the dilution of special status to Kashmir are pending before a bench headed by CJI Ramana.
In this episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, The Indian Express’s Naved Iqbal talks about the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit government employee in Kashmir, and the protests that it has led to. Next, Esha Roy talks about what the latest National Family Health Survey reveals about India’s fertility rate. And finally, Debraj Deb talks about why the BJP leadership decided to change the Chief Minister of Tripura.
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