It was carnage at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Saturday as Indian batters celebrated Dussehra in style on the field, smashing the highest ever T20I total by a Test-playing nation (297 for six) in the third and final T20I of the series, which they had already rapped up 2-0 with dominating wins at Gwalior and Delhi.
In doing so, they went past Afghanistan’s 278-3 against Ireland in 2019.
Opting to bat first after skipper Suryakumar Yadav won the toss, India scored their runs with the help of 22 sixes and 25 fours, which is also the highest boundary count – both fours and sixes – as well as the most sixes in an innings of a T20I.
At 82-1, there’s was the joint-highest powerplay score in T20Is.
Bangladesh buckled under the pressure of having to score at nearly 15 runs per over and they could manage only 164-7 in their allotted 20 overs. Their 133-run loss completed the visitors’ 0-3 whitewash. Only Towhid Hridoy (63 n.o., 5 fours and 3 sixes) and wicketkeeper-batsman Litton Das 42, 8 fours) showed some resistance.
Leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who was the only change in the team for the final match, replacing pace spearhead Arshdeep Singh, scalped three Bangladesh batsmen. In doing so he became the joint second fastest to 50 wickets for India in T20Is.
Speedster Mayank Yadav accounted for another two. Washington Sundar claimed one in the only over he bowled, and Nitish Reddy took one in his three overs.
Earlier, opener Sanju Samson scored a blistering century, his maiden in T20Is. His 111 was studded with 11 fours and 8 sixes and came at a strike rate of 236.17. He hit Bangladesh’s young leg spinner Rishad Hossain for five sixes off successive balls in the latter’s second over. The hapless bowler gave away 46 runs in the two overs he bowled before he was taken off the attack.
Sanju Samson smashed the second fastest century by an Indian after Rohit Sharma, and fourth-fastest by a batter from a Test-playing nation. He reached the triple-figure mark in just 40 deliveries.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav scored yet another half century, his 75 coming off only 35 balls at a strike rate of 214.29 with eight fours and 5 sixes. He became the second-fastest Indian batter, after Virat Kohli, to reach the landmark of 2,500 runs in T20Is.
He also moved up to the third spot among Indian batters to score the most 50s or above in T20Is. He now has 25 scores of 50 and plus in 72 innings. Virat Kohli is at the top with 39 in 117 innings, followed by Rohit Sharma (37 off 151 innings).
After losing Ashishek Sharma early, with the team total reading 23, the second wicket fell only at 196 when Sanju Samson departed towards the fag end of the innings. The 173-run partnership between Samson and Yadav was the second highest 2nd wicket partnership by an Indian pair ever in T20Is.
Riyan Parag and Hardik Pandya also showed no mercy, with the former racing to 34 off 13 balls with 1 four and four sixes, and the latter hammering 47 off just 18 balls with four fours and four sixes.
The most economical Bangladesh bowler, spinner Mehdi Hasan also averaged 11.2 in his full quota of four overs.
Tata Trusts, the philanthropic entity, holds controlling stake in Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata Group companies
Natarajan Chandrasekaran continues as Chairman of Tata Sons
Ratan Naval Tata’s half-brother Noel Naval Tata has been appointed his successor as chairman of the Tata Trusts, the philanthropic entity which holds a controlling 65.9% stake in Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata Group companies.
Another 12.87% stake in Tata Sons is held by a clutch of Tata Group companies, and 18.4% by the Mistry family.
Noel Naval Tata, who was already a trustee in some of the trusts under the Sir Ratan Tata and Allied Trusts and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust & Allied Trusts, which make up the Tata Trusts, is also currently holding several top-ranking positions within the Tata Group, including as chairman of Trent Ltd., Voltas, Tata International, and Tata Investment Corporation, as well as vice-chairman of Titan Company and Tata Steel.
Son of Naval H Tata and Simone Tata, Noel is married to Aloo Mistry, the daughter of Pallonji Mistry, one of the prominent stakeholders in Tata Sons.
Noel and Aloo have three children – Neville, Maya, and Leah – all of whom are members in some of these trusts and performing leadership roles in various Tata Group companies.
Ratan Naval Tata, who died at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai following a brief illness on October 9, had not named a successor for the leadership of Tata Trusts, which undertake charitable and philanthropic work in conjunction with a nationwide web of associate organisations and partners, in the fields of healthcare, education, rural upliftment, and more.
Consequent to this, the board of trustees of the Tata Trusts met in Mumbai on Friday morning and unanimously appointed Noel Naval Tata as Ratan Naval Tata’s successor. Key figures in this governance structure of Tata Trusts include former Defence Secretary Vijay Singh and TVS Motors’ Venu Srinivasan.
“It was unanimously decided to appoint Noel Naval Tata as the Chairman of the various Trusts that constitute the Tata Trusts and also designate him as Chairman, Tata Trusts. His appointment comes into place effective immediately,” said a press release by Tata Trusts.
Noel Naval Tata with wife Aloo Mistry
Noel Tata’s appointment is in line with the amendment made in the Articles of Association of Tata Sons by its board in 2022, whereby the same person could no longer hold the roles of Chairman of both Tata Trusts and Tata Sons, a position Ratan Tata had previously held.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran is the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata Group companies, since January 2017. He also chairs the Boards of several group operating companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Air India, Tata Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Indian Hotel Company, and Tata Consultancy Services.
Having functioned mostly under the shadow of Ratan Tata since he joined the group two decades ago, it would be interesting to see how Noel naval Tata shapes the future of Tata Trusts and the group companies under his command.
For memories sake: Little Noel Naval Tata photographed sitting in Ratan Tata’s lap in the company of their father Naval H Tata
It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Ratan Naval Tata, popularly called Ratan Tata, was the father of Indian industry’s globalisation.
In his death at the famous Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai, late on Wednesday night, following a brief age-related illness, the country has lost not just a distinguished industrialist, who opened the doors to globalisation for the Indian industry through high profile foreign acquisitions, but a truly uncommon man of humility, compassion and philanthropy.
Recipient of two of the highest national civilian honours of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan, the scion of the Parsi family, originally from the erstwhile Baroda state (now Gujarat), he has been variously described by a mourning nation as ‘Taj’ of India, industry legend, National icon, the ‘modest’ Indian tycoon, an iconic business leader, a titan of the Indian industry, etc.
Maharashtra government observed a day of mourning with all official celebrations being cancelled for the day on Thursday. The state cabinet, in a special sitting, also passed a resolution urging the Government of India to confer the highest national civilian award the ‘Bharat Ratna’ on him.
Ratan Tata was cremated with full state honours later in the day on Thursday in the electric crematorium of Worli cremation ground with hundreds of mourners in attendance. Earlier his body was kept at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) for a few hours for people to pay their last respects.
In the two decades Ratan Tata presided over the Tata Sons empire as its chairman, after which he was designated as its Chairman, Emeritus, he expanded the conglomerate taking its operations to 100 countries, and in the process raising the group’s revenues from an estimated $5.7Bn in 1991 to nearly $100Bn in 2012. By March end 2024, the group’s revenues stood at $165Bn.
He played a pivotal role in major foreign acquisitions, adding British tea brand Tetley, second largest global tea brand, in 2000; buying out British luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from the Ford Company in 2007; and Anglo-Dutch steel-maker Corus in 2008 to expand the group’s global presence.
Ratan Tata’s leadership also saw Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rise to global prominence.
The Nano moment: Ratan Naval Tata with then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the rollout of Tata’s first ‘people’s car’ Nano in 2008
Fulfilling his long-cherished desire and commitment to the welfare of the common man, and overcoming the most demanding challenges, Tata launched the world’s most affordable car Nano @Rs 1,00,000 in 2008, though it eventually turned out to be a commercial disaster because of it being tagged as the “cheapest car”.
Conceptually, Nano was targeted to be offered as an affordable all-weather and safer mode of transportation to the millions of two-wheeler owners, but the cheapest car tag which got attached to it proved its undoing.
One of the last major achievements of the Tata group during Ratan Tata’s lifetime was the successful reacquisition of Air India in 2021, restoring it to the Tata group nearly 90 years after it was nationalised.
A licensed pilot who would occasionally fly the company plane, Ratan Tata never married and was known for his quiet demeanour, relatively modest lifestyle and philanthropic work. About two-thirds of share capital of Tata Sons, the group’s holding company, is held by the philanthropic Tata Trusts which invest heavily in healthcare, education and employee welfare.
His humane approach to life and employees was starkly visible during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. One of the locations for the mass shootings by the terrorists was the iconic Taj Mahal hotel owned by the Tata group. On hearing about the terrorist attack, Tata had rushed to the hotel but on being denied entry into the hotel he stood near the hotel for three days and nights till the terrorists were neutralised.
As many as 33 people, including hotel staff, were killed in the hotel attack. Tata ensured that the families of the victims received in lumpsum the salaries the victims would have received during the remaining period of their employment with the company. He also ensured that the families were looked after well. The surviving employees continued to get their salaries even while the hotel remained closed for massive repairs.
Even the affected street vendors who did business around the hotel were suitably compensated.
During the Covid pandemic, the Tata Group was at the vanguard of the private sector’s relief efforts, helping arrange necessary equipment and kits, which were in short supply in the country, from global suppliers. Overall, the group donated Rs 1500 crore for the relief effort.
That is the legacy of compassion and commitment to public good that Ratan Tata has left behind for the group to cherish and steadfastly carry forward.
An entire landscape in an icy land has shifted to green over 35 years following a nearly 3-degree centigrade rise in temperature since 1950.
In an article published on www.nature.com, Alix Soliman has reported that a fast-warming region of the southernmost continent of Antarctica is getting greener with alarming speed. Satellite imagery of the region has revealed that the area covered by plants increased by almost 14 times over 35 years — a trend that will spur rapid change of Antarctic ecosystems.
The article quoted Olly Bartlett, a remote-sensing specialist at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK, and an author of the study published earlier this month in Nature Geoscience, that reports these results, as saying, “It’s the beginning of dramatic transformation.”
The article on www.nature.com further said Bartlett and his colleagues analysed images taken between 1986 and 2021 of the Antarctic Peninsula, a part of the continent that juts north towards the tip of South America, in March, which marks the end of the growing season for vegetation in the Antarctic.
Studying various technical parameters, the team found that the area of the peninsula swathed in plants grew from less than one square kilometre in 1986 to nearly 12 square kilometres in 2021, the rate of expansion being roughly 33% higher between 2016 and 2021 compared with the four-decade long overall study period.
The article further quoted a study co-author and environmental scientist at the University of Exeter, UK, Thomas Roland as saying: “These numbers shocked us. It’s simply that rate of change in an extremely isolated, extremely vulnerable area causes the alarm.”
Previous visits by the authors to the peninsula had led the authors to think that most of the vegetation is moss. As mosses spread to previously ice-covered landscapes, they will build up a layer of soil, offering a habitat for other plant life, Roland says. “There’s a huge potential here to see a further increase in the amount of non-native, potentially invasive species,” he says, according to the article.
This is a concern because Antarctica’s native flora is adapted to extreme conditions, and they might not be able to compete with an influx of other species, Lee was further quoted as saying in the article.
Considering the string of impressive performances by the Sri Lanka senior men’s cricket team during the recent tours against India, England and New Zealand under the guidance of legendary opener and allrounder Sanath Jayasuriya as interim head coach, the country’s national cricket body, Sri Lanka Cricket announced on Monday that he has been confirmed as regular head coach of the team till the conclusion of the 10th ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka in February-March, 2026.
A post on its official X handle (@OfficialSLC) said, “Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce the appointment of Sanath Jayasuriya as the head coach of the national team.
“The Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket made this decision taking into consideration the team’s good performances in the recent tours against India, England and New Zealand, where Jayasuriya was in charge as the ‘interim head coach’.
“The appointment came into effect from Oct 1, 2024, and will remain until March 31, 2026.”
His first assignment as head coach will be the forthcoming limited overs matches against West Indies, in Dambulla and Pallekele.
Over the past few months, Sri Lanka, under Jayasuriya’s training, won their first bilateral ODI series against India in 27 years by a 2-0 margin (though earlier they were whitewashed in the T20I series 0-3), defeated England in a away Test match for the first time in 10 years (England won the Test series 2-1), and more recently whitewashed New Zealand 2-0 in home Tests to give the team an outside chance of qualifying for the World Test Championship final.
This is Jayasuriya’s first serious foray into coaching, though he has served as chief selector in two separate stints prior to his two-year-ban under the ICC’s anti-corruption code.
Jayasuriya had stepped into the coaching role following the exit of Chris Silverwood after the 9th edition of the T20 World Cup in the Americas.
Jayasuriya’s international cricket stats
The left-handed big-hitting former Sri Lankan opener has 21,000-plus runs to his credit in 586 international matches spanning all three formats.
He played 110 Test matches, amassing 6973 runs with 14 hundreds and 31 fifties at an average of 40.07, his highest score in an innings being 340.
But his strongest contribution came in the ODIs. In the 445 ODIs he played, the left-handed pinch-hitter smashed 13,430 runs at an average of 32.36, with 28 hundreds and 68 half centuries and a strike rate of 91.20. His highest score in ODIs was 189.
The advent of T20Is came towards the fag end of his career because of which he could play only 31 matches in the shortest format of the game, scoring 629 runs at an average of 23.36 and a strike rate of 129.15. His highest T20I score was 88.
He was a more than useful orthodox left arm spinner too, claiming 440 international wickets in all three formats with 14 four-wkt and 6 five-wkt hauls.
He was a key member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 1996 ODI World Cup. He also served as Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka from 2010-15.
Mayank Yadav & Nitish Kumar Reddy celebrate after getting India cap in the first T20I against Bangladesh at the swanky new Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia cricket stadium in Gwalior on Sunday (OCT 6, 2024)
India polish off 128-run target in less than 12 overs
Player of the match Arshdeep Singh and comeback ‘mystery’ spinner Varun Chakaravarthy scalp three each
Speedster Mayank Yadav and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy get India cap
International cricket returned to the royal city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh 14 years after Sachin Tendulkar created history here by smashing the first double century ever in an ODI against South Africa. The venue, however, shifted from the iconic Captain Roop Singh Stadium in the heart of the city to the swanky new Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium, named after late former Indian cricket board President Madhavrao Scindia, just outside the city.
And what a memorable inaugural international match it was at the stadium on Sunday as a new look Indian T20I side, under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, playing clinical cricket, literally toyed with a clueless Bangladesh team to win the first match in the three-match T20I series by seven wickets in less than 12 overs on Sunday.
The match witnessed two new promising stars of Indian cricket – speedster Mayank Yadav and seaming allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy – donning the India cap for the first time.
First the bowlers made mincemeat of the Bangladesh batting lineup, with all the six bowlers on display impressing with their varying styles of bowling. India’s pace spearhead Arshdeep and ‘mystery’ spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, the latter making a comeback to international cricket after playing for the country in the T20 World Cup 2021, were the pick of the bowlers, scalping three batters each.
Arshdeep Singh was awarded the Player of the Match award with a bowling analysis of 3.5-0-14-3.
Hardik Pandya also came good with an all-round performance, claiming one wicket and remaining unbeaten on 39 off just 16 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Mayank Yadav was right on the money from the first ball, bowling a maiden first over in his debut match, a great achievement in this format of the game. He picked up his first international wicket as well, finishing with an impressive analysis of 4-1-21-1.
Washington Sundar, picking up one wicket in his two overs, and debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy, though going wicketless in his two overs, were also equally impressive.
Bangladesh lost their big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman Litton Das in Arshdeep’s very first over, and they did not really recover thereafter, losing wickets at regular intervals with their innings folding up at 127 in 19.5 overs. Captain Shanto (27 off 25) showed some resistance before giving a dolly caught and bowled chance to Washington Sundar, thank you so much!
Allrounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz was the highest scorer in the innings, remaining unbeaten on a well made 35 off 32 balls with three hits to the fence.
A view of the swanky new Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia cricket stadium in Gwalior, named after former BCCI president Madhav Rao Scindia
The Indian openers came all guns blazing with Abhishek Sharma being more belligerent of the two. He raced to 16 off just 7 balls with two boundaries and one maximum before he was unfortunately runout.
However, the others, including the other opener wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson and captain Suryakumar maintained the tempo of the innings. Right through the innings India maintained a run rate above 10 runs an over. Suryakumar Yadav hit the maximum number of sixes (three) out of the seven scored in the Indian innings.
India went into the match with eight bowling options. However, the other two bowling options, Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag, were not utilised, given Bangladesh’s dismal batting performance.
BJP member of Parliament from Kurukshetra Naveen Jindal, an accomplished polo player, arriving at a polling booth riding a horse to cast his vote for the assembly elections in Haryana on Saturday (Oct 5, 2024). PHOTO credit: X/@mpnaveenjindal
The gates to various polling booths across Haryana had barely been closed on Saturday for the 2024 assembly elections when various exit polls started scrambling to announce the results of their exit polls.
The predictions of all the four-five exit polls conducted by various organisations on behalf of different channels, though varying in numbers, pointed in the same general direction as the most dominant perception that the ruling BJP is losing, and the resurgent Congress is staging a comeback by a comfortable margin after staying out of power for the last 10 years.
Unlike the exit polls which failed miserably in the Lok Sabha 2024 elections at a national level, having made predictions which were way off the dominant perception sweeping the country, that the ruling BJP at the Centre is in for major setbacks, the state level exit polls can be seen to be more creditable since these almost ditto reflect the widespread public perception that 10 years of anti-incumbency is going to majorly dent the electoral prospects of the ruling party.
The BJP had apparently itself acknowledged the anti-incumbency factor, along with the backlash of the state and central government’s unpopular handling of the farmers’ as well as wrestlers’ agitations, when it replaced its chief minister for nine-and-a-half year Manohar Lal with then state party president Nayab Singh Saini ahead of the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.
It was widely believed that the apparent damage control exercise, coming as it did too late in the day, would not help reverse the electoral prospects of the party, and it was proven in the Lok Sabha elections when the party took a five-seat hit from its 10-on-10 performance in the previous elections in 2014 and 2019.
Coming to the exit polls, though, as mentioned earlier in the write-up, all the exit polls point in the same general direction, we will dwell on what to us looks the most creditable among them – the India Today C-Voter poll.
The poll gives the Congress between 50-58 seats in the 90-member state assembly (in 2019 election it won 31), the ruling BJP 20-28 seats (it won 40 in 2019) and others, including Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 10-16 seats (in 2019 they were 19, including JJP’s 10).
The BJP has understandably rubbished these polls, with its national spokesperson claiming that its own polls give it 50-plus seats and that it will be forming a government in the state for the third time in a row.
On the other hand, former Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who dominated the poll scene for the party in Haryana, asserted that the BJP is going, and the Congress is coming back to power with a thumping majority.
For the ultimate truth, however, we’ll have to wait till October 8, when counting will take place along with Jammu and Kashmir.
Principal Scientific Advisor to GOI Prof Ajay Kumar Sood
delivering the PU Foundation Day Lecture-cum-Pran Nath Vohra Oration on the topic 'India @2030 Marching Forward: Science and Technology Space in India' at the University Auditorium in Chandigarh on Tuesday (01.10.2024)
Research output in the country is concentrated in a few institutions
Private sector funding of R&D in India very low as compared to leading countries
India in race for supremacy in Quantum Tech and development of generative AI
Biography of Prof Om Parkash Vig, a distinguished chemist and former Chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Chemistry, released on his 100th birth anniversary
It’s not often that you get to hear in depth one of the bright brains in the country helping shape the scientific roadmap of the country about the challenges faced by the country and the priorities set by the government of the day to overcome these.
So, here was the man, the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India, Padma Shri Prof Ajay Kumar Sood emphasising on the need for universities and institutes of higher learning, as well as private industry, to majorly step up their research and Development (R&D) efforts to raise it to international levels.
He also shared the mission mode in which the government is working to establish the country’s supremacy in the critical fields of quantum technologies and artificial intelligence moving forward and measures undertaken to achieve the country’s target of net zero economy by the year 2070.
Prof Sood was delivering the Panjab University (PU) Foundation Day Lecture-cum-Pran Nath Vohra Oration on the topic ‘India @2030 Marching Forward: Science and Technology Space in India’ at the University Auditorium on Tuesday.
Himself an alumnus of the university, the PSA, in the presence of Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig, and other top brass of the university, also released a biography of Prof Om Parkash Vig, a distinguished chemist and former Chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Chemistry, on the latter’s 100th birth anniversary.
The biography, chronicling Prof OP Vig’s life, achievements, and scientific contributions, has been authored jointly by Germany-based science historian Prof Rajinder Singh and Dr SS Bari, who remained associated with the distinguished chemist for four decades.
A special cover in memory of Prof Vig, released by India Post, was also unveiled on the occasion with his family members in attendance.
While noting the significant strides made by the country in the R&D domain in terms of infrastructure as well as outcomes, Prof Sood also listed out areas where India is lagging the advanced countries and needs to catch up fast.
India’s R&D growth story
PSA to GOI Prof Aay Sood receiving the Pran Nath Vohra Citation from PU Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig
Among the achievements, Prof Sood mentioned India’s vastly improved ranking in Global Innovation Index, rapidly increasing Gross Expenditure on R&D, tripling the number of publications, third rank in PhDs in Science & Technology as well as patents granted, and world’s third largest startup ecosystem.
Stressing on the growth story of higher education in India, he shared that the number of universities in the country have grown from 827 to 1305, institutes of national importance from 75 to 158, and total PhD enrolments from 1.17 lakh to 2.13 lakh. He said it is gratifying to note that female PhD enrolments have also more than doubled from 48,000 to 99,000.
In the QS World University Ranking 2025, 11 Indian institutions have found a place in the top 500 worldwide and two of them have been ranked in the top 150 – IIT Bombay (118 rank) and IIT Delhi (150 rank), he pointed out.
Still country lagging leading countries
PSA to GOI Prof Ajay Sood releasing the biography of Prof Om Parkash Vig, a distinguished chemist and former Chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Chemistry, on the latter’s 100th birth anniversary
The PSA however admitted that despite India’s growth story in R&D, it was lagging leading countries with gross R&D expenditure as percentage of GDP at a low of 0.64%, compared to China, Finland, Japan, South Korea, and USA which are spending in the region of 2-4% of their GDP on R&D.
In terms of full-time R&D personnel per million population also India with 262 researchers stands nowhere near China, USA, Japan, Finland, and South Korea, the last country having an astronomical ratio of 9000.
Sharing glaring data based on NIRF: India Rankings 2024, he highlighted that research output in the country is concentrated in a few institutions.
According to the data, the number of most productive institutions as per laid down parameters is only 18 (with average publications per institution of 7620), medium productive institutions are 47 (Av publications 2839), low productive institutions 108 (Av publications 1236), and least productive institutions 115 (Av publications 1121).
Institutions with zero publications
PSA to GOI Prof Ajay Sood inaugurating the PI-RAHI (Northern Region Science and Technology Cluster), an initiative under Science & Technology Cluster programme of his office, at the Panjab University in Chandigarh
Revealing that there are 80 universities and institutions of higher learning with zero publications, he said the situation is worrisome and the country will have to ensure that the R&D infrastructure and ecosystem is evenly distributed across institutions.
While the private industry in the leading countries is contributing a lion’s share of R&D funding, the Indian private industry’s contribution is only 36.4%, the rest being funded by the government. In comparison the private sector’s funding of R&D effort in South Korea is 79.1%, Japan (78.6), USA (77.6), China (76.9), UK (70.9), Germany (66.9) and France (65.7%), Prof Sood added.
He said the private sector in the country will have to be motivated to invest more in R&D to accelerate the pace of development in the country.
Dwelling on another significant parameter – Human Development Index, which takes into account education, health and living standards – he said here again India, currently with an index of 0.645, has to step up and move from the medium category to the world average high category index of between 0.700-0.799.
While emphasising that a lot of work is being undertaken to carry forward various national missions like One Health Mission, Electric Vehicles Mission, Green Hydrogen Mission and AGNII (Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovation), he delved deep into two missions in which the country is aspiring to lead the world – the National Quantum Mission and the Artificial Intelligence Mission.
Race for supremacy in quantum tech
Giving reasons why India, like many other leading nations, is in the race for supremacy in quantum computing space, he said it is a critical area for ensuring national security. If your adversary has quantum computers, and you don’t, then the security of all your digitally operated national grids, which work of encrypted communication networks, face the threat of being compromised and the country can collapse.
Sharing that the country is investing heavily in quantum computing, he listed out the technology’s immense long-term potential in crucial areas like drug designing and precise climate predictions.
Generative AI
Another area of deep focus, Prof Sood said is development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Despite its various pitfalls, AI is here to stay, and no country can afford to be left behind in the field, which has progressed to generative AI.
However, he emphasised that India should create its own large language models (LLMs) for AI applications, which should be trained on our own data, and not depend on data from Europe or the US, which can be biased.
Among the seven pillars of the new AI mission launched by the Indian government are compute capacity, which is very large; applications development; startup financing; establishing innovation centres; and safe and trusted AI, Prof Sood stated.
Player of the Series Ravichandran Ashwin. PHOTOS Credit: X/BCCI
Force incredible 7-wicket win in rain-truncated 2nd Test at Kapur with nearly 1 ½ sessions of play remaining
The Bangladesh national cricket team crossed the border Into India starry-eyed after their historic first ever Test series win against Pakistan, a 2-0 whitewash, that too in the latter’s own backyard, marking only their third Test series win away from home. Little would they have visualised they will be thumped so badly as to start seeing stars in daylight.
It’s remarkable the way India forced a crushing defeat on the visitors in a rain truncated 2nd Test in just over two-days play to complete a 2-0 clean sweep of the series. In doing so India have proved that with the talent and confidence the team has it can make possible the seemingly impossible.
The 7-wicket victory at The Green Park in Kanpur, with nearly 1 ½ sessions of play remaining in a match two full days of which were lost to rain, was an even more impressive one than the 280-run pasting of the visitors in the first Test at Chennai in terms of the sheer resolve and clinical execution of plans displayed by the team.
With the 2-0 series sweep, India have extended their streak of consecutive series wins at home to 18. The next best by any team is by Australia who had two different streaks of 10. Four thousand three hundred and six (4306) are the number of days since India last lost a Test series at home.
India has also consolidated their lead on the top of the World Test Series (WTC) 2023-2025 leaderboard.
Meanwhile, for his excellent performance, with half centuries in both innings (72 and 51), young and talented opener Yashasvi Jaiswal collected the ‘Player of the Match’ award, while star allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin bagged the ‘Player of the Series’ award for the 11th time in his career for his masterly century and six wickets in the first Test in Chennai, and six more dismissals in Kanpur.
Yashasvi Jaiswal became the eighth player overall and the second Indian to score 50 or more in both innings of a Test at a pace of more than run-a-ball. The only Indian, and the first player ever to do so before him, was Virender Sehwag against West Indies at Delhi in 2011. England’s Harry Brook is the only player in the world to have done this twice.
In winning his 11th Man of the Series award in Tests, Ravichandran Ashwin equalled Muttiah Muralitharan’s record for winning the most Man of the Series awards in Test cricket. Muttiah Muralitharan played 60 series, while Ashwin reached the landmark in just 39 series.
India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah continued his highly productive 2024 with a six-wicket match haul. The prolific pacer now has the joint-most Test wickets in this year (38) with Sri Lanka’s Prabath Jayasuriya.
Proceedings on the last day of the 2nd Test at Kapur began with Bangladesh resuming their second outing at 26/2 still trailing by 26 runs from India’s first innings total. Ashwin struck early inducing a false sweep shot from first innings unbeaten centurion Mominul Haque.
The skiddy Ravindra Jadeja then ran through the middle order, first getting rid of captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and breaking his stubborn partnership of 55 with opener Shadman Islam. He stuck in three consecutive overs, also sending back wicketkeeper-batsman Litton Das and allrounder Shakib Al Hasan. His bowling analysis in the initial part of his spell read 2.2-1-3-3.
Bangladesh slumped from 91/3 to 94/7 with pacer Akash Deep chipping in with the seventh wicket, and Bumrah polishing off the tail.
It was an incredible performance by the hosts both with the bat and ball. They took just 121.2 overs to skittle out the entire Bangladesh team twice and rattled off the winning runs in both innings in just 51.6 overs.
It was day to remember for ages. Records fell like nine pins. Sensing an iota of opportunity to force what earlier looked like an improbable victory on the fourth day of the 2nd Test match against Bangladesh at Kanpur, after losing two full days to rain, Indian batsmen, led by captain Rohit Sharma, went ballistic, trampling records at will.
Wrapping up the visitors’ first innings at 233 (resuming the innings on the fourth day at 107-3) midway through the second session of play, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal strode into the park with an intent, plundering runs at will against a clueless young Bangladesh pace attack. After young Yashasvi smacked fours of three consecutive balls of the first over, Rohit hoisted the first two balls of the next for maximums.
That set the tone for the fastest team 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 in Test cricket history. Though wickets fell at regular intervals in the process, Indian batsmen were undeterred. With just five sessions available to force a win, caution was not an option.
The fearless cricket yielded intended results, as declaring the innings at 285-9 in 34.4 overs, with possibility of squeezing in a few more overs before bad light would force stumps, India had Bangladesh on the mat, with the visitors reeling at 26-2 at close of play, still trailing by another 26 runs.
Exciting cricket is in prospect on the final day of the Kanpur Test.
Will India be able to force a memorable victory!
The records that tumbled, and the milestones reached
Fastest team 50 in Test cricket: Racing to 51/0 in 3 overs, India broke England’s record of 4.2 overs in the Nottingham Test against West Indies earlier this year.
Fastest team 100: At 103/1 in 10.1 overs, India broke their own record of 12.2 overs made in the Trinidad Test against West Indies in 2023.
Fastest team 150: With 155/3 in 18.2 overs, the home team broke their own record of 21.1 overs made in the Trinidad Test against West Indies in 2023.
Fastest team 200: At 201/4 in 24.2 overs, India broke Australia’s record of 28.1 overs made in the 2017 Test against Pakistan in Sydney.
Fastest team 250: With 250/5 in 30.1 overs, India broke England’s record of 34 overs in the Rawalpindi Test against Pakistan in 2022.
Virat Kohli breaches 27,000 international runs Mark: He became the fourth batter to reach 27,000 international runs, the others being Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara. He became the fastest to reach the landmark, in 594 innings, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar (623 innings), Kumar Sangakkara (648 innings) and Ricky Pointing (650 innings).
Sixes of first two balls faced: Rohit Sharma became only the fourth batter to hit sixes off their first two balls (off Khaled Ahmed) in a men’s Test innings. The others are Foffie Williams (off Jim Laker) in 1948, Sachin Tendulkar (off Nathan Lyon) in 2013 and Umesh Yadav (off George Linde) in 2019.
Ravindra Jadeja’s achieves landmark: He became the seventh Indian bowler to pick up 300 wickets in Test cricket. The others are Anil Kumble (619), Ravi Ashwin (524), Kapil Dev (434), Harbhajan Singh (417), Ishant Sharma (311) and Zaheer Khan (311).
He also became the second-fastest player in Test cricket to achieve the double milestone of 3,000 runs and 300 wickets, trailing only England’s Ian Botham. Jadeja reached this milestone in 74 Tests, just behind Ian Botham’s 72, becoming the 11th player worldwide to accomplish this remarkable feat.
He is the third Indian to achieve this unique record, joining the ranks of Kapil Dev and Ravichandran Ashwin. In reaching 300 Test wickets, he also became the fourth-fastest Indian to achieve the milestone of 300 wickets, following Ashwin (54 matches), Anil Kumble (66), and Harbhajan Singh (72).
Most sixes by a team: 96 sixes smashed by India in 2024 is the most maximums by a team in a calendar year in Test cricket, surpassing 89 by England in 2022, with 87 sixes by India in 2021 sitting in the third slot. India have possibly the second innings of the ongoing Kanpur Test and another seven to follow in the remainder of the year to add to the tally.
Earlier, opener Sanju Samson scored a blistering century, his maiden in T20Is. His 111 was studded with 11 fours and 8 sixes and came at a strike rate of 236.17. He hit Bangladesh’s young leg spinner Rishad Hossain for five sixes off successive balls in the latter’s second over. The hapless bowler gave away 46 runs in the two overs he bowled before he was taken off the attack.
