T20 World Cup: ‘Plan was to force them to think of playing some other shots’, reveals Axar

Georgetown (Guyana), June 28 2024-

India all-rounder Axar Patel, who bowled an exuberant 3-23 spell in India’s 68-run win over England in the second semifinal of the T20 World Cup, revealed that his plan was to make it difficult for the opponent, forcing them to think of playing some other shots, without doing anything extraordinary.

Captain Rohit Sharma’s 57 from 39 balls coupled with Suryakumar Yadav’s 47 from 36 allowed India to post 171/7 in 20 overs after being invited to bat first. In response, Axar and Kuldeep Yadav spun the web on England’s batters and bundled them for 103 in 16.4 overs with both taking three wickets each.

The most significant blow came from Axar, who removed the England captain with his opening delivery. He then went on to dismiss Jonny Bairstow and Moeen with the first delivery of his second and third overs, respectively, before Kuldeep claimed three wickets of his own to completely derail England’s chase.

“I hadn’t really planned to get a wicket on the first ball. My mindset was to put the ball in the right areas. Obviously, when you play knockouts, you want to start and finish well with the first and last ball. The plan in the powerplay was the usual. It’s tough to bowl in the powerplay, but when you know that you are getting help from the wicket, then without thinking much, without doing anything extraordinary, I thought that the more I keep it simple, the easier it would be for me,” said Axar in the post-match presser.

“We spoke about it in the dressing room that it’s not an easy wicket (for batting), and I knew that the batsman will charge at me. It wasn’t going to be easy to hit me down the ground and hitting off the back foot wasn’t easy either because the ball wasn’t coming on the bat nicely. My plan was to make it difficult for them, force them to think of playing some other shots, and, that’s what happened on the first ball,” he added.

The all-rounder highlighted that he was confident of India’s bowling to defend the target after setting above par total and lauded Rohit’s hitting prowess on a slow wicket.

“I think we knew we could defend 170, it was a par score. The way the wicket was behaving, and Rohit bhai said after he finished batting that it was very difficult to hit big shots because the odd ball was spinning, staying low, skidding as well. We thought that 150-160 was also a very good score which we could have defended. So, when we made 170, we knew that we had 10-15 runs extra,” he said.

Axar said England faltered against spinners due to the pressure while trying to play aggressive cricket in the powerplay. “It’s also about pressure. When you are chasing, and you know that the wicket is helping the bowlers in that pressure. So, as an opener, or anyone in the top four, they must be thinking of cashing in on the powerplay as much as possible. I’m guessing that’s what they were thinking, but it didn’t work out,” said the 30-year-old.

“I think it was difficult to hit big shots as well as the sweeps and reverse sweep because some balls were keeping low on this pitch so it wasn’t easy to connect. It creates a doubt in the batsman’s mind that if he sweeps and the ball keeps low, he’ll get hit on the pad. So it depends on what line and length you bowl. Mostly our spinners kept it stump to stump so it was very difficult to execute the sweeps and reverse sweeps,” the all-rounder concluded.

India will now lock horns with South Africa in the title clash in Barbados on Saturday, June 29. (Agency)

Delhi airport canopy collapse serious incident, DGCA will probe: Union Minister

New Delhi, June 28 2024-

The Delhi airport roof collapse was a “very serious incident” and DGCA will look into the matter thoroughly, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Friday.

Following the canopy collapse at Terminal-1 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Friday, the Union Minister rushed to the spot to inspect and oversee rescue operations.

At least one person was killed and four others injured in the tragic incident which happened at around 5 a.m. amid heavy rain.

After inspecting the spot, the Minister said, “Today morning at 5, a very unfortunate incident happened at IGI Airport Terminal-1, when a section of the canopy outside of the Airport building collapsed due to heavy rain since night. I express my condolences to the life that has been lost in this tragic incident, and along with that, we are taking care of the four people who are injured. As soon as the incident came to our notice, we reacted immediately, we sent the emergency response team, safety team, CISF and NDRF teams for a thorough inspection to ensure no other casualties were there.”

The minister further said, “As of now, the rest of the terminal building has been closed. Regarding the flights, we have informed the airlines that passengers should not face any inconvenience, hence the flights till 2 p.m. were cancelled. The passengers will get full refunds and other than that if they want to travel from the alternative routes, they will be assisted.”

Earlier the minister wrote on X, “Inspecting the T1 Terminal and reviewing with the officials. All required rescue operations are being conducted at the terminal.”

As the minister went around the affected spot, the officials briefed him about the rescue work.

Many vehicles, including cabs, were damaged in the incident. The canopy sheet and the support beams collapsed, damaging the cars parked in the pick-up and drop area of the terminal.

The NDRF officials were involved in the rescue operations.

All departures from Terminal-1 have been temporarily suspended, and check-in counters closed as a “safety measure”, a Delhi airport spokesperson said. Terminal-1 has only domestic flight operations.

The spokesperson also said that all departing flights from T1 of IndiGo and SpiceJet are cancelled till 2 p.m.Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) spokesperson said, “Due to heavy rain since early this morning, a portion of the canopy at the old Departure forecourt of Delhi Airport’s Terminal 1 collapsed around 5 am. There are injuries reported, and emergency personnel are working to extricate those affected and provide medical attention.”

“As a result of this incident, all departures from Terminal 1 are temporarily suspended, and check-in counters are closed as a safety measure. We sincerely regret this disruption and apologize for any inconvenience caused,” the DIAL spokesperson further said. (Agency)

Thales inks pact with Adani Defence to manufacture 70mm rockets in India

New Delhi, June 28 2024-

In a major fillip to the government’s local manufacturing push, Adani Defence & Aerospace – the defence arm of the Adani Group — has signed an agreement with the Thales Group to manufacture 70mm rockets in India.

Thales said that this partnership is not only significant for their commitment to India, “but it also allows us to strengthen our partner network worldwide”.

“We congratulate the Adani Group on this partnership. Together, we seek to contribute to the further growth and success of India’s defence sector,” the Thales Group said in a post on X.

“We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Adani Group in India. We look forward to collaborating on the manufacturing of Thales’ 70mm rockets in India,” said the Thales Group.

This partnership is a key milestone in our continued support of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ vision for India’s growing defence industry, the Thales Group added.

Adani Defence & Aerospace, part of the Adani Group, is a pioneer in the design, development and manufacturing of state-of-the-art defence products.

The company signed a significant agreement with EDGE Group – one of the world’s leading advanced technology and defence groups in the UAE – earlier this month.

The pact aims to establish a global platform leveraging the defence and aerospace capabilities of both companies to bring together their respective product portfolios and cater to the requirements of global and local customers. (Agency)

AWS picks 24 Indian startups for space accelerator programme

New Delhi, June 28 2024-

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Friday announced its first-ever space accelerator programme in India, selecting 24 startups from the country, providing a big boost to the space startup sector.

The selected startups operate in a range of space segments such as spacecraft propulsion, orbital and launch vehicles, satellite imagery, geospatial applications, weather analysis, and space tourism, among others.

These include a launch vehicle and sustainable satellite startup from Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu; an advanced geospatial analysis startup from Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands; and a satellite technology-based precision farming startup from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, among others.

“This is the fourth consecutive year that AWS has run a Space Accelerator programme, but the first one we’ve tied to one specific country”, Clint Crosier, Director of the Aerospace and Satellite business at AWS

The programme is part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement signed between AWS and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in 2023.

Crosier said AWS chose India for the accelerator programme “because of extraordinary growth opportunities in the Indian space sector.” Besides a “record number of new Indian space startups forming, there is strong support from the government,” Crosier added.

The 14-week programme will provide startups with dedicated technical expertise, specialised AWS training, and mentoring from space domain and technical experts.

In addition, the shortlisted startups will also receive up to $100,000 cumulatively in AWS credits and support to build and scale their solutions. (Agency)

EU leaders reach agreement on top jobs

Brussels, June 28 2024-

The European Council summit has agreed to formally nominate Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as president of the European Commission.

European Council President Charles Michel confirmed the nomination on social media platform X.

In addition to von der Leyen’s nomination, EU leaders agreed to elect former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa as President of the European Council, while nominating Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the EU’s foreign policy chief, Xinhua news agency reported.

“It is with a strong sense of mission that I will take up the responsibility of being the next President of the European Council,” Costa stated on X. He added that he is fully committed to promoting unity among all 27 member states and focused on implementing the strategic agenda for the next five years approved at the summit.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni voted against Costa and Kallas while she abstained on von der Leyen’s re-appointment. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban voted against von der Leyen, in favour of Costa and abstained on Kallas, Euronews reported, citing diplomatic sources. (Agency)

India gives UN $1.16 million for promotion of Hindi

United Nations, June 28 2024-

India has contributed $1.16 million to the world organisation for the promotion of Hindi.

R. Ravindra, the charge d’affaires of India’s Permanent Mission, gave the cheque on Thursday to Ian Phillips, the director of the News and Media Division of the UN’s Department of Global Communications (DGC).

The contribution is a special payment made in addition to the assessments for the UN’s regular and the peacekeeping budgets “to mainstream and consolidate news and multimedia content of DGC in the Hindi language”, the mission said.

India has partnered with the DGC since 2018 when the Hindi @ UN project was launched “to enhance the public outreach of the United Nations in the Hindi language, and to spread greater awareness about global issues among millions of Hindi-speaking people around the world”, according to the mission.

The UN produces an audio Hindi news bulletin every week on matters relating to the world organisation.

The UN also maintains X, Instagram and Facebook social media accounts in Hindi, in addition to a news website.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken at the UN in Hindi, with simultaneous translation provided by India.

The late Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first to speak in Hindi at the UN when he addressed the General Assembly as External Affairs Minister in 1977.

The UN started with five official languages, English, French, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish, in which simultaneous interpretations of meetings are made, and official documents produced and, starting in 1973, Arabic was added.

There has been a push to add to the UN’s range of multilingualism, but the main constraint is finance, and that is why India is paying for the Hindi initiative.

German-speaking Austria and Germany (at that time comprising East and West Germanies) undertook to cover the expenses for a translation service covering documents of some UN bodies.

The DGC has increased the use of Kiswahili and Portuguese, languages used in Africa, in social media and in radio and TV programmes.

It also started producing important announcements and officials’ messages in Persian, Bangla and Urdu. (Agency)

India leads global AI research, Bengaluru 7th best AI Hub: Report

New Delhi, June 28 2024-

Bengaluru is now ranked seventh on the top 10 list of artificial intelligence (AI) Hubs worldwide, a report showed on Friday, adding that India (tied with Germany) has the highest number of AI research institutions globally.

Bengaluru, with 759 AI startups has an aggregate score of 4.64, according to Linkee.ai which conducted research to identify the top 10 leading AI Hubs in 2024.

When it comes to AI research institutions, India (Bengaluru) and Germany (Berlin) topped the chart, with nine such research facilities each.

China with 518 AI startups has just six AI research institutions, the report mentioned.

The Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD) is one of the prominent AI research institutions.

AI Hubs are the cities most invested in AI, where there are several AI-related jobs, AI specialists, data scientists, and machine learning specialists get highly paid along with a huge number of AI institutions.

“Similar to Berlin, Bengaluru has the highest number of AI research institutions on the list, as well as the highest number of available AI jobs in the city,” said the report.

Boston in the US leads the list as the top AI Hubs in 2024, with a score of 6.26.

Singapore ranks second on the list of the best AI Hubs in the world, generating an aggregate score of 5.92.

Tel Aviv, Israel is the third-leading AI Hub in 2024, owing to its total score of 5.62.

Zurich, Switzerland holds the fourth position on the list and Toronto, Canada ranks fifth.

Five out of the 10 listed leading AI Hubs are Asian cities, according to the report. (Agency)

18-year-old girl gang-raped in Gurugram; accused absconding

Gurugram, June 27 2024-

An 18-year-old girl has been allegedly gang-raped in Gurugram’s Sohna area by five persons after she was abducted by them from her house, the police said on Thursday.

According to the police, the incident occurred on the intervening nights of Wednesday and Thursday.

The girl, a student of Class 9, was abducted from her house, following which the accused took turns to rape her. She eventually fell unconscious.

After committing the crime, the accused dumped the girl at a place near her locality and threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the matter to anyone.

On Thursday morning, local residents informed the victim’s family when she was spotted lying on a street.

Later, the girl narrated her ordeal to her family members, following which her father approached the police and registered a complaint.

The Sohna Police have registered a case under relevant sections of the IPC.

Inspector Jagjit Singh said the victim had suggested one of the accused’s names as Imran.

“The suspects are still absconding, and they will be arrested soon,” the police officer said. (Agency)

Heavy rains flood key junctions in Gurugram

Gurugram, June 28 2024-

A heavy spell of pre-monsoon rain turned Gurugram’s major roads, sectors and colonies into a river on Friday morning.

As per the data from the district administration Gurugram City recorded 30 mm of rain between 4.00 am and 8.00 am on Friday. The data also showed that Sohna saw the maximum rainfall of 82 mm and Wazirabad saw 55 mm.

Waterlogging was reported at several key junctions, including Sector-4, 5, 30, 22, 10-A, 9, 31, 40, 48, Police line, Bus Stand Road, Sheetla Mata Road, Narsinghpur service road, Hero Honda Chowk, Basai Chowk, Khandsa, Sanjay Gram Road, Sohna Road and Subhash Chowk, which resulted in heavy water logging and traffic snarls.

Internal sectors and colonies such as sectors 7, 6, 12A, 29, 39, 47, Palam Vihar, Sheetla Colony and Rajiv Nagar also had flooded streets.

In some areas, even on the expressway Pedestrians had to wade through knee-deep water at some places.

“Nothing has changed. The Gurugram authorities are fooling people. They just do planning and noting on the ground. There is waterlogging after rain at the same spots. After rain we can not walk on the sector roads,” said Mohit Yadav, a resident of Sector 40.

As the rainwater failed to recede during the morning hours, the entire stretch from village Jharsa to Sector 30 and Narsinghpur service road on the national highway was turned into a river.

“In our sector, stormwater drains are damaged or not cleaned. Several written complaints have been given to MCG to construct them but in vain. The sector was developed years ago but the basic infrastructure is yet to be upgraded,” said a representative of Sector-47 RWA.

“There was heavy congestion at Narsinghpur Chowk due to waterlogging. It seems that the city’s infrastructure is not meant to handle heavy rainfall,” said a resident of Narsinghpur village.

The district administration recently identified 112 waterlogging-prone spots. Municipal corporation officials, however, informed that teams have been formed by the civic agency to monitor waterlogging points and take swift rectification measures.

GMDA, MCG and the irrigation department have also decided to install more high-power pumps at waterlogging points along the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, including at Narsinghpur.

But these steps have failed to resolve the waterlogging problem at Narsinghpur, which has emerged as one of the biggest choke points on the Expressway whenever it rains.

“1,000 plus traffic personnel have been deployed at key junctions for traffic management, Traffic police were already on the spot facilitating traffic movement. We also coordinated with the civic authorities to drain out the water for smooth traffic movement,” said Virender Vij, DCP (traffic).

Meanwhile, GMDA officials said the heavy rain caused flooding in some places, but it started receding once rainfall stopped. (Agency)

Centre to conduct thorough check of airports, says Civil Aviation Minister

New Delhi, June 28 2024-

Following the canopy collapse at Terminal-1 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Friday, the Centre will conduct a thorough check of all the airports in the country.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, who visited the Terminal-1 site soon after the incident, said, “We will conduct a thorough check on all the airports that come under our purview…we will make the necessary report and see if there is a requirement for an independent body for this.”

At least one person died and four others were injured when a canopy at Terminal 1 collapsed on Friday amid heavy rain.

After inspecting the spot, the Minister said, “We have asked the Delhi International Airport Limited to do a verification and inspection from their side. But we are not leaving it up to them. From the Ministry, we have the DGCA, which underlooks the safety aspect, which will be supervising this inspection and will submit its report.”

“From the ministry side, I can assure you that this is taken as a serious issue, not just in this airport but all across the country, with similar structures,” the Minister said.

While giving details of the incident, the Minister said, “Today morning at 5, a very unfortunate incident happened at IGI Airport Terminal-1, when a section of the canopy outside of the Airport building collapsed due to heavy rain since night. I express my condolences to the life that has been lost in this tragic incident, and along with that, we are taking care of the four people who are injured. As soon as the incident came to our notice, we reacted immediately, we sent the emergency response team, safety team, CISF and NDRF teams for a thorough inspection to ensure no other casualties were there.”

The Minister further said, “…we have informed the airlines that passengers should not face any inconvenience…The passengers will get full refunds and other than that if they want to travel from the alternative routes, they will be assisted.” (Agency)