tirupati l wednesday l august 20, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION harmanpreet & Co seek their first World Cup trophy As the BCCI announced the squad for the Women’s ODI World Cup to be played in India, a look at the Harmanpreet Kaur-led squad... No Shafali, Renuka returns after long break Spin heavy India look for home glory One of the key debates in the lead up to the selection was whether opener Shafali Verma will get a place. However, her lean run in the T20I series vs England and with India A in Australia meant Verma did not make the cut. Seamer Renuka Singh Thakur, who had been out of action due to injury, will make a comeback in the ODIs against Australia and feature in the World Cup. ■ ■ With four frontline spinners and plenty of part-time options in the squad, expect Harmanpreet and Co to use their slower bowlers to control the proceedings. Despite the quality of attack, several bowlers will be playing their first ODI WC and will be looking to rise to the occasion | P11 2013 was the last time india hosted the women’s odi world cup 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 INDIA bloc picks ex-judge Reddy The Opposition believes that Reddy’s candidature is a ‘masSETTING the stage for a keen terstroke’ as it will blunt the contest for the upcoming Vice NDA‘s move to upset the ruling Presidential election, the Oppo- DMK government in Tamil sition INDIA bloc on Tuesday Nadu. The DMK was in a tight named former Supreme Court spot after the NDA picked Radjudge B Sudershan Reddy as its hakrishnan, a seasoned BJP joint candidate to face NDA leader from Tamil Nadu with nominee Maharashtra Gover- an RSS background, as its VP nor C P Radhakrishnan candidate. on September 9. An Opposition leader Calling the election said Reddy’s nominafor the country’s secondtion will unsettle the highest office as an ‘ideChandrababu Naidu-led ological battle’, ConTelugu Desam Party, a gress President key ally of the BJP at Mallikarjun Kharge , the Centre. “Though the while announcing Red- Sudershan Reddy TDP has already exdy’s candidature, tended support for the termed him as one of India’s NDA candidate, the party will most “distinguished and pro- be under pressure as Sudergressive jurists”. Before his ap- shan Reddy commands goodpointment to the Supreme will in the state,” said a leader Court, Reddy had served as adding that the former Judge Chief Justice of the Guwahati also has also worked closely High Court and as a judge of with the previous TDP the Andhra Pradesh High government. Court. He retired as a judge of Reddy’s candidature has also the Supreme Court in 2011. put fence sitters such as K p r e e t h a n a i r @ New Delhi Rains bring Mumbai to its knees; rail traffic, road network crippled Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge with other INDIA bloc leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday | EXPRESS Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party in dilemma, said a senior leader. “It will be difficult for the BRS and Jagan Mohan Reddy to go against our candidate now,” he said, adding that INDIA parties will reach out to these neutral players. The YSRCP, however, has already declared its support for the NDA nominee. He is a propoor man, in many of his judgments... he favoured the poor and protected the Constitution —Mallikarjun Kharge private participation RINL invites bids to operate 32 critical units of steel plant U s h a P e r i @ Visakhapatnam ‘BEST’ case scenario : Commuters are stranded as a couple of BEST buses break down near Kurla in Mumbai on Tuesday due to the downpour | PTI bhaji Nagar district alone, 800 villages have been impacted, TORRENTIAL rains unleashed with approximately two lakh widespread devastation across hectares of agricultural land Maharashtra, claiming seven suffering crop losses. A delives and damaging over two tailed panchanama will be conlakh hectares of standing ducted, and compensation will crops. be disbursed to those Airlines On Tuesday, chief affected,” Fadnavis issue minister Devendra stated. advisory Fadnavis convened a In response to the virtual meeting with India Meteorological Airlines on all divisional commisDepartment’s (IMD) Tuesday issued sioners, where he in- travel advisories yellow and orange structed authorities alerts for Mumbai, for passengers, to provide immediate T h a n e , P a l g h a r, urging them to relief, including shelRaigad, and other recheck flight ter, food, and essential status and plan gions, the state govsupplies, to those their journeys in ernment on Tuesday stranded due to floods directed local adminadvance and incessant istrations to close rainfall. schools and colleges “So far, seven people have as a precautionary measure lost their lives due to the heavy amid forecasts of heavy to very rain, and several rivers have heavy rainfall. Severe waterbreached their danger levels. logging caused significant trafAlerts have been issued to resi- fic disruptions across multiple dents in affected areas. In Sam- parts of the city . s u d h i t s u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai The long-running debate over the future of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has taken a fresh turn with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of VSP, inviting private participation in more than 30 key segments of the plant. According to the latest notifications issued on August 16, RINL has sought Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from private players to operate 32 critical units of the steel plant. The 32 segments for which RINL has invited Expressions of Interest include major power and steel-making units such as Captive Power Plants-1 and 2, Waste Heat Recovery Boilers, Turbo-generators, Coal Handling Plant of Thermal Power Plant, Continuous Casting Machines (CCM-1, 2, 3 and 4) of SMS-2, Secondary Metallurgy of SMS-1, and the BOF shops of SMS-1 and SMS-2 along with associated auxiliaries. Other units notified are the finishing and shipping areas of the Medium Merchant and Structural Mill (MMSM), Structural Mill (STM), Special Bar Mill (SBM) and Wire Rod Mills (WRM-1, 2 and 6), roll shops and repair shops, central machine shop, iron and steel foundry and energy and environment manage, ment department, including gas safety sysP4 tems. Beijing to resume key industrial, agri supplies to India India, China signal cautious reset amid trade, border talks Wang to visit Pak today After his India trip, Wang will travel to Pakistan on Wednesday to hold the annual strategic dialogue with Pakistan’s deputy PM and foreign minister Ishaq Dar, to be held from August 20 to 22 Borders now quiet: Doval NSA Ajit Doval, who led the border talks, highlighted the calm since last year’s disengagement. “Borders have been quiet, there has been peace and tranquillity...” he said EAM leaves for Russia External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday reached Moscow. During his 3-day trip, he will attend key meetings and also hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi | X J AYA N TH J ACO B @ New Delhi IN a sign of thaw in IndiaChina ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday assured External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar that Beijing will resume critical exports to India, including fertilisers, rare earth minerals, and tunnel boring machines, addressing three longpending Indian demands. The move, seen as a confidence-building gesture, came just ahead of the 24th round of India-China border talks in New Delhi and was followed by Wang’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jaishankar is learnt to have underlined the expectation of stable, uninterrupted supply chains for essential inputs during the discussions, which he had raised with the Chinese side earlier as well. Sources said Wang responded positively, committing to facilitate these vital goods. After the visiting Chinese foreign minister called on him, Modi said the relations between the two countries have improved. Modi “welcomed the steady and positive progress in bilateral ties since his meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, guided by mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity in, Shreyas out, Gill made Surya’s deputy Shubman Gill was named as vice captain in one of the biggest talking points in the 15-man squad the BCCI named for the Asia Cup next month in the UAE. A look... Bumrah in, Shreyas out Jasprit Bumrah whose last T20I was the World Cup final last year earns a recall into the side for the continental event. Shreyas Iyer continues to miss out. Asia Cup runs from Sep 9-28 Gill to open Two mystery spinners Varun Chakravarthy, who excelled in the same conditions in the Champions Trophy, makes it back. He will have Kuldeep Yadav for company. GST overhaul could bring down car prices by up to 10% The proposed next-generation GST overhaul could bring down car prices by up to 10%, if the tax rate is reduced from 28%to 18%, according to analysts. As part of the wider reforms to boost economic growth, the Centre has proposed moving from four tax slabs to a simplified two-rate system: 5% for es- sential items and 18% for most other goods. Luxury and sin products could face a steeper levy of around 40%. “Cars currently are under the 28% GST band and if GST is rationalised to 18%, then prices for entry-level cars can come down by 8-10%. Players like Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors which have a strong entry-level portfolio are likely to be the key beneficiaries,” Sunny Agrawal, head of fundamental research at SBI Securi- ties, told this newspaper. At present, vehicles are taxed under multiple slabs combining GST and cess. Small cars are taxed at 28%, whereas large cars (above 4 metres in length and 1200cc in engine size) are taxed (including cess) in the range of 43-50%. Global financial firm HSBC estimates that the proposed tax reforms could result in an 8% drop in the prices of small cars. Bigger cars, too, could also become cheaper in the range of 3-5%. HSBC added that this could mean a loss of around $4-5 billion in GST collections for the government. Meanwhile, the prospects of tax cuts have put carmakers in a tight spot as buyers are now holding on to their purses, deferring their purchase plans. P4 reflects ideology of NTR: Naidu Express News Service @ Vijayawada Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has reiterated that his government is committed to uplifting the poor through every decision. Formally launching the implementation of the P4 (PublicPrivate-People-Partnership) programme in Mangalagiri of Guntur district on Tuesday he , emphasised that the initiative, aimed at poverty eradication, reflects the ideology of TDP founder and former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao, viewing the society as a temple, and its people as deities. The P4 programme, launched on Ugadi day, has identified 13,40,697 Bangaru Kutumbalu (golden families) across the State, with 1,41,977 volunteers adopting them as Margadarshis (guides), he said, underlining the need to reduce economic inequalities in the society . Informing that there is a total of 1.69 crore families in the State, and 21 lakh poor families need financial aid, he made it clear that there is no force in selection of Margadarshis, and the P4 is purely voluntary  P4 . CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu formally launches the implementation of P4 programme in Mangalagiri | Express express read Free bus travel scheme extended to Tirumala Vijayawada: APSRTC Chairman Konakalla Naryana Rao on Tuesday announced the extension of the Stree Shakti free bus travel scheme to Tirumala Hills, much to the delight of women. A one-way ticket to Tirumala costs `90 | P4 ‘Swarna Naravaripalli’ solarises 1,600 houses B M u r a l i @ Tirupati There were some murmurs that the red-ball captain wouldn’t be part of the team but he makes it in a new role as vice-captain. Ri d i n g o n h o p e A r s h a d K h a n @ New Delhi cluding the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra,” an Indian readout said, adding that Modi “reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question.” Accepting the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s invitation to attend the upcoming SCO Summit in Tianjin, Modi said he looked forward to meeting Xi again. “Stable, predictable, and constructive bilateral ties will contribute significantly to regional and global peace and prosperity he said. ,” National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Wang held the 24th round of border talks under the framework of the Special Representatives mechanism. Amid the renewed diplomatic exchanges, sources clarified there was no change in India’s position on Taiwan. “India has always maintained a relationship with Taiwan focused on economic, technological, and cultural ties — that has not changed,” a source said. India has been supporting the one-China policy thought its reflection in joint statements remained by and large absent after Chinese started issuing stapled visa to Indian nationals in Arunanchal Pradesh in 2008. zero poverty The Swarna Naravaripalli Project has promoted sustainable energy in Naravaripalli, A Rangampet and Ramireddipalli villages of Chandragiri Assembly constituency in Tirupati district.  Har nessing the region’s abundant sunlight, the pilot project has transformed houses in the three remote villages into net zero energy units, setting a groundbreaking model for sustainable rural development in India. By turning homes into minipower plants, the project not only addresses energy needs but also paves the way for economic and environmental ben- Trump rules out sending troops to Ukraine efits, making these villages a beacon of green innovation. Launched in the three Gram Panchayats, the project has solarised 1,600 houses in a record three-month period, boasting a total installed capacity of 3,396 kilowatts at a cost of `20.68 crore. Naravaripalli has been honoured with the SKOCH Award for effective implementation of the PM Surya Ghar scheme. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu set a target on January 16, which was successfully met by April 18. Tirupati District Collector S Venkateswar received a letter from the SKOCH Group informing that the award will be presented at SKOCH Summit in Delhi on September 20.  P4 US air support, European ground troops could be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, US President Donald Trump said | P9