MADURAI 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 report given to ngt 134 dead, 89 hurt in cracker unit blasts in V’nagar since ’22 S V KRISHNA C HAITANYA @ Chennai ‘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 Since 2022, 134 people have lost their lives and 89 others have been injured in accidents at firecracker manufacturing factories in Virudhunagar district, according to official data submitted before the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday. The fresh figures lay bare the extent of safety failures in the industry . In his report, Virudhunagar Collector N O Sukhaputra said that, at present, the district is home to 320 manufacturing units licensed by the district magistrate (DM) and nearly 800 units licensed by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), a department controlled by the union government. Official data shows that the majority of accidents are reported from the PESO-licensed units. The district, which is India’s fireworks hub, recorded 89 accidents between 2022 and mid2025. Of this, PESO licensed-units accounted for 78 accidents, 123 deaths and 87 injuries. In contrast, DM-licensed units saw just 11 accidents, 11 deaths and two injuries. Year-wise data indicates worsening trends. In 2022, 18 people died — 12 in PESO-licensed units and six in DM-licensed units.  P5 cracker INSIDE Man hurt inP3 explosion I 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 AYANTH J A C O 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. Bill on J&K Reorganisation in LS today M u k e s h R a n j a n @ New Delhi THE government will introduce The Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, which will have a new provision for removal of the Chief Minister or a minister who is arrested and detained in custody on account of serious criminal charges. The amendment bill will only be introduced and scheduled to be sent to a joint committee of the Parliament for scrutiny . The amendment in the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 was required as there was no provision of a legal framework for removal of the Chief Minister or a Minister in such cases, sources said. According to them, the objective of the bill is to make ministers holding office accountable. The draft amendment bill says that a minister, who is facing allegations of serious criminal offences, arrested and detained in custody “may thwart or hinder the canons of constitutional morality and principles of good governance and eventually diminish the constitutional trust reposed by people in him”. Sources said that if a minister is detained in custody for 30 consecutive days, he or she “shall be removed from his office” by the Lieutenant Governor on the advice of the CM. e x p r ess r e a d ‘Verify property tax assessments in Madurai’ Madurai: Madurai Bench of the Madras HC on Tuesday directed the Madurai Corporation to form special teams to verify accuracy of property tax assessments made in respect of all immovable properties in Madurai city | P5 Election to choose new CPI state secy deferred Chennai: Election to choose the new state secretary of the CPI, scheduled for Monday, was postponed (without a new date) after a tussle between two camps over the executive council delayed proceedings | P4 MTC to privatise ticket collection on diesel buses B AN B USELV AN @ Chennai 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 pe 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. amendment A month after privatising ticket collection in recentlylaunched electric buses under a gross cost contract (GCC), the MTC has decided to privatise ticket collection for its regular diesel buses running from 31 depots within and outside Chennai. A total of 1,172 conductors will be hired through private agencies, with a monthly salary of `26,750, inclusive of insurance, PF and other benefits. Another 1,020 drivers will be recruited to operate regular buses across the city . All tickets are to be issued only through electronic ticketing machines. Tenders have been invited for appointing a Trump rules out sending troops to Ukraine total of 2,192 drivers and conductors. There are 3,000 vacancies in the posts of driver and conductor in MTC, according to trade unions. At present, out of 3,200 buses, nearly 400 remain off the road due to crew shortages, lack of spare parts and other reasons. The induction of 2,192 additional staff is expected to bring around 300 more buses into operation. MTC Managing Director T Prabhushankar said temporary conductors have already been engaged in ticket collection for some time. “With a large number of drivers and conductors retiring in recent months, we decided not to cut services.  P5 US air support, European ground troops could be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, US President Donald Trump said | P9