CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ HUBBALLI  MONDAY  MAY 16, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION LAKSHYA SEN The young star handed India 1-0 lead after beating world No 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in a gruelling three games 8-21 21-17 21-16 SATWIKSAIRAK RANKIREDDY AND CHIRAG SHETTY The experienced player controlled the game to beat Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie 21-15 23-21 to give India victory THOMAS ARRIVES IN SHUTTLE S W A R O O P S W A M I N AT H A N @ Chennai THE Impact Arena in Bangkok has played host to some of the biggest personalities and bands in the world of music. Think Roger Waters, Coldplay, Beyonce, BTS and Britney Spears. On Sunday it , was jiving, heaving and grooving to the humble dhol. While the Indian fans in the stands were cranking up the noise in the arena, the Indian players tasked with rewriting history went about it in a calm, unhurried manner. When the weight of 73-years of history finally lifted at about 3.15 PM IST on Sunday it had a certain , authority to it. Kidambi Srikanth, who had been invincible all week, stretched his record to 6-0. By the time he saw off Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in straight games and threw his racquet on the green turf before being enveloped by his onrushing teammates, the story had already started to sink in. “India are Thomas Cup champions for the first time ever”. Of course, like every story the, re are multiple protagonists who made this dream a reality Laksh. ya Sen who took down Olympic bronze medallist Anthony Ginting on the first match on Sunday . HS Prannoy a controversial direct , selection that set the tongues wagging even before the team had booked their flight to the Thai capital, keeping his cool on multiple occasions. Srikanth himself bringing his zen-like focus game after game, match after match while quietly guiding the side’s many young players. The doubles stars, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who kept chipping aw, ay even when it looked the effort wasn’t translating into results. The biggest factor, though, was the side’s mentality Heads never . dropped, shoulders never drooped and the belief never wavered as all of them embraced all of sport’s only true currency Giving up was . not an option. In modern sporting parlance, it’s known as ‘mamba mentality’ and that’s what this team embraced throughout the week. The proof of this is in the pudding. Lakshya suffering from food poisoning yet answering the call of duty on the very first day of the tournament and saving his best for last. This team lost the opening singles rubber on backto-back days in the quarterfinals and semifinals. This team won a deciding rubber twice on back-toback days against Malaysia and Denmark to enter the final. This side was 21 points away from not qualifying for the final. In the end, though, this side became only the second in the meet’s history to win the event after failing to top the group phase. Mentality monsters from start to finish in the backdrop of dhols. FULL COVERAGE: P11 One family, one ticket rule in sweeping Cong reforms R A J E S H A S N A N I @ Udaipur Sonia Gandhi addresses the concluding session of the shivir in Udaipur | PTI Retirement age for party lawmakers From the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, half of Congress tickets will be given to those below 50 years of age. Also a retirement age will be fixed for those in Parliament, state legislatures and other elected posts uled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and minorities at all levels were approved. Also, no one can hold a party position for more than five years. Other important elements of the declaration include a new a Mandal Samiti to strengthen the organisation, legally guaranteed MSP for all 23 crops, a farm debt relief commission, a return to pushing the public Schools to reopen today, NEP will be rolled out E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru SCHOOLS across the state are all set to reopen on Monday wh, ich is early as the government , is launching a learning recovery programme to help students this year. This will be the first time in the last two years that students are starting their academic year with offline classes. The government is also rolling out the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 this year, with 20,000 anganwadis starting the new curriculum. Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh on Sunday said the early start is to help students compensate for the setback in learning caused by pandemic. Educators have been given adequate training in both learning recovery programme and the new curriculum, he added. NEP is not for all students, as it is being rolled out only in certain areas and for children in anganwadis. The new curriculum will begin only a month after schools reopen, in June. P4 sector in the post-liberalisation era and demand for private sector quota in jobs. Also, Congress will set up three new departments — public insight, election management and national training. The party plans to start a National Training Institute to train the cadre with its policies, ideology and vision. It will also , set up a monitoring wing to keep a close eye on the performance of all party officials. One proposal the CWC rejected was on creating a Congress Parliamentary Board. It instead decided to set up a political affairs committee in each state and at the central level. Prominent among the mass action programmes the party conceived was a nationwide Kashmir to Kanniyakumari ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Gandhi Jayanti day on October 2 this year. “It will aim to preserve the foundational values of our Constitution that are under assault and will highlight the day-to-day concerns of our people,” Sonia said. She also announced the start of a mass contact programme, called Jan Jagran Abhiyan, at the district level from June 15. Sonia sought to energise the delegates, saying, “we will overcome — that is our determination, that’s our sankalp.” WITH Swiggy’s Genie and Supr Daily temporarily unavailable, citing worker shortage across the state, the reasons being attributed to it are many includ, ing rising fuel prices, inability to keep up with shorter delivery time demands and lack of regular work. Another major reason is the ongoing harvest season. Rohit Rathi, founder of KarmaLife, a platform which provides financial schemes for gig workers, told TNIE, “According to a research by us, the shortage is cyclical, with workers usually travelling back to their hometowns for the harvest season and companies finding excess workers around the festive season when money is short for workers. But now with other BONDING EXERCISE The lead players were very secure about their place in the side. Coach U Vimal Kumar spoke about this in the postmatch conference and it was in evidence when the side’s youngest player, Priyanshu Rajawat, received the Thomas Cup on the podium TRIUMPH OF THE COLLECTIVE When HS Prannoy went down clutching his ankle in the semifinals, it looked like panic stations. However, he fought through the pain barrier for the greater good. If anything defines this team, it’s this. It’s a bunch of individuals who make this team greater than the sum of their parts This might sound a little dramatic. But you know, when I was in Korea for the Korea Masters, and the following week we had selection trials… immediately after those trials, when the team got announced, we created a (Whatsapp) group titled ‘We’ll Bring It Home’, or something like that. — Kidambi Srikanth, on the belief in this team @ Hubballi CM Basavaraj Bommai inaugurates renovated Dharavati Hanuman temple near Hubballi on Sunday | D HEMANTH JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT May 14 13,47,702 doses May 15 2,84,791 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,91,25,72,031 NATIONWIDE MAY 14 MAY 15 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,858 3,355 11 2,487 2,878 13 KARNATAKA MAY 14 MAY 15 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 103 179 0 126 103 0 FATAL TOUCH 35-yr-old man electrocuted at bus stand in Bengaluru E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru A MAN who was waiting for a bus at the Hebbal bus stand was electrocuted on Saturday night, making it the second such incident in a month. The deceased, whose identity is yet to be established and is said to be aged around 35, had come to the bus stop alone around 8.30 pm. As it was raining, he was taking shelter at the bus stand. He touched the metal rod of an advertising hoarding and was electrocuted. Passersby who noticed him , getting the shock, alerted Hebbal police. The body was shifted to MS Ramaiah Hospital for postmortem. No ID cards or documents were found on him. A case of negligence has been filed against Bescom, an officer said. pressures mounting, it does not seem like they will return to Bengaluru,” he said. Post-pandemic, the change is more acute, leading to platfor ms like Swiggy shutting down some of its services, he said. “The need to return home for the harvest season might also be fuelled by rising petrol and diesel costs. Especially when they are not paid on a monthly basis, it becomes less of an incentive when fuel prices often exceed their payouts,” he added. P5 Behind the scenes of champions A R U N K U M A R H U R A L I M AT H Delivery apps face shortage of gig workers D O N N A E VA @Bengaluru A jubilant Indian team mob Kidambi Srikanth who won the third match against Indonesia to seal the gold in Thomas Cup in Bangkok | AP This time last year, Lakshya Sen was No 23 in the world. A fantastic last year, including winning a bronze at the Worlds, has helped him become the lead player. This gave both Prannoy and Srikanth winnable matches coming in as the 2nd and 3rd singles players. End result? They returned a record of 11-0 ROAD TO WIN Group Stage bt Germany 5-0 bt Canada 5-0 lost to Chinese Taipei 2-3 Knockouts Quarterfinals: bt Malaysia 3-2 Semifinals: bt Denmark 3-2 Final: bt Indonesia 3-0  Lakshya bt Anthony Ginting 8-21, 21-17, 21-16.  Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/ Chirag Shetty bt Mohammad Ahsan/ Kevin Sanjaya 18-21, 23-21, 21-19  Kidambi Srikanth bt Jonatan Christie 21-15, 23-21) Cabinet expansion after approval from high command, says Bommai 50% posts to the U-50, and social re-engineering by giving half the party positions to weaker sections part of the Udaipur Declaration THE Congress on Sunday adopted its Udaipur Nav Sankalp Declaration at the end of its chintan shivir, drawing up a comprehensive roadmap for wide-ranging internal reforms to make the party battle-ready for all upcoming elections till the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. A task force will be set up in the next 2-3 days to implement the decisions, Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced in her concluding address. Also, an advisory committee of Congress Working Committee (CWC) members headed by Sonia will be formed to deliberate on political issues. Earlier, the CWC vetted the reports of six dedicated panels on organisational, political, economic, agricultural, social justice and youth-related issues, which formed the crux of the Udaipur Declaration. Among the approved proposals was the ‘one family one tick, et’ rule, with exemption for big hitters in the party for five years, which was seen as tailormade for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. As reported in these columns over the last two days, 50% representation to those below 50 years of age across the party organisation, and 50% inhouse representation to Sched- THE DEPTH KIDAMBI SRIKANTH Rankireddy and Chirag were in their immaculate best during the doubles match against the experienced pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, beating them 18-21 23-21 21-19. They saved four match points in the second game before clinching the third 21-19. Gave India 2-0 advantage before second singles match The need to return home for the harvest season might also be fuelled by rising petrol and diesel costs. Especially when they are not paid on a monthly basis, it becomes less of an incentive Rohit Rathi, founder of KarmaLife CHIEF Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said he will get in touch with the BJP high command in New Delhi over phone in a day or two and only after receiving directions from the top leaders, the Cabinet expansion will take place. At Hubballi Airport on Sunday, he said the state government is currently busy with the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council polls which are due in June. The BJP core committee meeting on Saturday discussed the party’s strategy for the two elections, he added. He said the party high command is keen on Cabinet expansion. On criticism from Opposition parties on various issues, Bommai said, “All issues like hijab, azaan and halal have been addressed legally and cordially The issues were . resolved as per directions from courts. Giving efficient and pro-people administration is more important.” On speculation that the party would give an MLC ticket to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra and then induct him into the ministry, Bommai refused to comment, saying the high command will take a decision. Later inaugurating the renovated Dharavati Hanuman Temple at Gokula village on the outskirts of Hubballi, along with Union minister Pralhad Joshi, he said Lord Hanuman was born in Karnataka. CONTINUED ON: P4