RECORDS, ALL OTHER excl. Asia & India – Page 6

Ind vs Eng 2nd WODI | Harmanpreet powers India to first series win in England in 23 years

Harmanpreet Kaur scored a magnificent 143 not out (111 balls) as India put on board a mammoth 333 for 5 against England in the 2nd ODI. India won by 88 runs

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur smashed a scintillating unbeaten ton to power India to a comprehensive 88-run win in the second ODI, that sealed country’s first series win against England since 1999.

A vintage Harmanpreet rekindled the memories of 2017 World Cup with a magnificent 143 not out which came off just 111 balls as India put on board a mammoth 333 for 5.

India bundled out England for 245 in 44.5 overs with medium pacer Renuka Singh (4/57) claiming four wickets on Wednesday night.

Danni Wyatt’s 58-ball 65 was the lone bright spot, in an otherwise, dismal show by England batters.

The last time Indian women won an ODI series in England was in 1999 when they triumphed 2-1.

Indian bowlers come good

Chasing the imposing total, what England needed was a brisk start, but Renuka denied them by dismissing two top-order batter in Emma Lamb (15) and Sophia Dunkley (1).

Tammy Beaumont (6) was run out as the hosts were reduced to 47 for 3 by the end of the eighth over.

Alice Capsey (39) and Wyatt stitched 55 runs for the fourth wicket and then Wyatt shared another 65 runs with skipper Amy Jones (39) before the England’s chase fell apart with Renuka cleaning up Wyatt in the 30th over.

Towards the end, Charlie Dean (37) and Kate Cross (14) tried their best but the asking was too tall as India recorded a magnificent win.

18 fours, 4 sixes for Harmanpreet

Sent into bat, Harmanpreet smashed 18 fours and four sixes en route her 111-ball knock and also enjoyed a fine 112-run stand for the fourth wicket with Harleen Deol (58 off 72 balls).

She also added 50 with Pooja Vastrakar (18) and another 71 runs in four overs with Deepti Sharma (15 not out) for the unbroken sixth wicket stand.

However, it was in the last three overs in which Harmanpreet literally took the game away from England’s grasp as the 334-run target in a WODI always looked improbable even though the pitch being a batting belter.

In the last three overs, the Indian team scored 62 runs, courtesy its skipper, who was in imperious touch while reaching her fifth hundred in WODIs.

The innings had Harmanpreet’s trademark slog sweeps over cow corner which fetched him a couple of sixes while there were disdainful sixes over cover region.

With the pitch offering little help for bowlers, hitting through the line was very easy and England’s bowling attack did suffer a bit with only off-spinner Charlie Dean (1/39) ending with respectable figures.

The worst sufferer was debutant left-arm seamer Freya Kemp, who did decently till the end of her seventh over in which she had conceded only 28 runs.

Such was Harmanpreet’s dominance that Deepti Sharma, who still holds the individual record (188) by an Indian batter in WODIs, was more of a spectator during their sixth wicket stand.

Brief Scores

India Women 333/5 in 50 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 143 not out, Harleen Deol 58, Freya Kemp 1/82).

England: 245 all out in 44.2 overs (Danni Wyatt 65; Renuka Singh 4/57). PTI SSC SSC AT AT

World Para Athletics Grand Prix: Devendra Jhajharia won silver

Indian javelin thrower, Devendra Jhajharia has clinched a silver medal in the World Para Athletics Grand Prix, in Morocco.

Indian javelin thrower, Devendra Jhajharia has clinched a silver medal in the World Para Athletics Grand Prix, in Morocco. Paralympics gold medalist Devendra threw the javelin to a distance of 60.97 meters to capture the silver. Devendra is a three-time Paralympics medalist. While 2020 Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist Nishad Kumar won the gold medal in the men’s T47 high jump, javelin throwers Ajeet Singh and Devendra Jhajharia bagged gold and silver respectively in F46 category.

India has so far won 3 gold medals, two silver, and a bronze in the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Morocco. Other medalists for India include Neeraj Yadav (F55/56 discus- Gold), Anil Kumar (T54 100m- Silver), and Ranjeet Bhati (F57 javelin- Bronze).

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Indian-Origin Artists Create Giant Mural Tribute To Queen In London

Two Indian-origin artists from west London are working on a giant mural of Queen Elizabeth II as a tribute to the late monarch who passed away aged 96 in Scotland last week.

Jignesh and Yash Patel have been working on the community project since the news of the 96-year-old Queen’s death broke on Thursday, which will be visible from a distance in the Hounslow area of west London.

An Indian Diaspora in UK (IDUK) group is supporting their project with an online fundraiser on the Go Fund Me website, which has already raised donations of over GBP 1,000.

“This artwork will not only give tribute to the Queen but also will be a piece of art that will be enjoyed by thousands of people across the UK for many years to come,” IDUK said.

“Jignesh and Yash Patel are renowned artists who have five Guinness World Records such as the world’s largest bubble wrap painting, which they created in the year 2021 by filling 200,000 bubbles to set a new world record. The duo is very active in various charity and community projects via their art,” the group said.

The mural is being created on a two-floored building in Kingsley Road area of Hounslow east as a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The artists, who have also painted a large mural of Dutch impressionist artist Van Gogh in the area, said they have been wanting to cover their street with murals to uplift the area.

“It was only right that we show our tribute to Her Majesty the Queen with the one skill we are good at,” said Yash Patel.

He said the project has also brought together people of the local area and has been a “collective community effort” with the local councilors also on board.

outlook

Punjabi singing sensation AP Dhillon throws official ceremonial first pitch for baseball team Toronto Blue Jays

Former US Presidents including Obama & Bush as well as Hollywood elite like Tom Hanks have been part of Major League Baseball’s celebrity ritual of throwing the first pitch. The Canada-based crooner from Gurdaspur, was the chosen one at Robers Centre stadium, playing to the beats of his hit number Brown Munde.

In a first, Punjabi singer and artist AP Dhillon, who shot to fame with his chart-topping numbers like Brown Munde, Summer High and Fate, threw the official ceremonial first pitch for Canadian Major League Baseball team Toronto Blue Jays in their American League baseball match against the Tampa Bay Rays at the Roberts Centre stadium in Toronto on Tuesday night.

The Gurdaspur-born 29-year-old Dhillon, who is now based in Canada and does shows across the world, was donning a blue and white two-time Major League Baseball champions Toronto Blue Jays jersey, and accompanied the team’s mascot Ace on the pitch before making the official ceremonial first throw of the match.

Dravidian language family is 4,500 years old: study

The Dravidian language family’s four largest languages — Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu — have literary traditions spanning centuries, of which Tamil reaches back the furthest, researchers said.

The Dravidian language family, consisting of 80 varieties spoken by nearly 220 million people across southern and central India, originated about 4,500 years ago, a study has found.

This estimate is based on new linguistic analyses by an international team, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, and the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun.

The researchers used data collected first-hand from native speakers representing all previously reported Dravidian subgroups. The findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science , match with earlier linguistic and archaeological studies.

South Asia, reaching from Afghanistan in the west and Bangladesh in the east, is home to at least six hundred languages belonging to six large language families, including Dravidian, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan.

The Dravidian language family, consisting of about 80 language varieties (both languages and dialects) is today spoken by about 220 million people, mostly in southern and central India, and surrounding countries.

Along with Sanskrit, Tamil is one of the world’s classical languages, but unlike Sanskrit, there is continuity between its classical and modern forms documented in inscriptions, poems, and secular and religious texts and songs, they said.

“The study of the Dravidian languages is crucial for understanding prehistory in Eurasia, as they played a significant role in influencing other language groups,” said Annemarie Verkerk of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Neither the geographical origin of the Dravidian language nor its exact dispersal through time is known with certainty.

The consensus of the research community is that the Dravidians are natives of the Indian subcontinent and were present prior to the arrival of the Indo-Aryans (Indo-European speakers) in India around 3,500 years ago.

Researchers said that it is likely that the Dravidian languages were much more widespread to the west in the past than they are today.

In order to examine questions about when and where the Dravidian languages developed, they made a detailed investigation of the historical relationships of 20 Dravidian varieties.

Study author Vishnupriya Kolipakam of the Wildlife Institute of India collected contemporary first-hand data from native speakers of a diverse sample of Dravidian languages, representing all the previously reported subgroups of Dravidian.

The researchers used advanced statistical methods to infer the age and sub-grouping of the Dravidian language family at about 4,000-4,500 years old.

This estimate, while in line with suggestions from previous linguistic studies, is a more robust result because it was found consistently in the majority of the different statistical models of evolution tested in this study.

This age also matches well with inferences from archaeology, which have previously placed the diversification of Dravidian into North, Central, and South branches at exactly this age, coinciding with the beginnings of cultural developments evident in the archaeological record.

Indian-origin Suella Braverman appointed UK Home Secretary

The 42-year-old barrister was among the first contenders to throw her hat in the ring to replace Boris Johnson.

Suella Braverman, nee Fernandes, the Conservative Party member of Parliament for Fareham in south-east England, on Tuesday appointed as the UK’s new Home Secretary, succeeding fellow Indian-origin colleague Priti Patel.

The 42-year-old barrister, who until now served as the Attorney General in the Boris Johnson led government, was among the first contenders to throw her hat in the ring to replace Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister.

Braverman was named as the Home Secretary by newly-appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss.

“I want to embed the opportunities of Brexit and tidy up the outstanding issues and cut taxes, said Braverman, a prominent member of the pro-Brexit wing of the Conservatives who wants a clear break from Europe, including taking the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

She referenced her personal migrant story as the London-born daughter of Hindu Tamil mother Uma and Goan-origin father Christie Fernandes, who migrated to the UK from Mauritius and Kenya respectively in the 1960s.

They loved Britain. It gave them hope. It gave them security. This country gave them opportunity. I think my background’s really informed by approach to politics, said Braverman in her leadership campaign launch video in July.

However, she was knocked out in the second round of the initial ballot of Tory MPs and threw her support behind Truss, who as Prime Minister has rewarded her with one of the highest offices in the UK government.

Braverman was named as the Home Secretary by newly-appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Liz is ready now to be PM. She won’t need to learn on the job. And the job is hard and needs to be done properly. The party has had a difficult six years and stability is urgently and swiftly needed, Braverman said of her future boss at Downing Street.

The Cambridge University law graduate married Rael Braverman in 2018 and her maternity leave famously brought about an overdue legal change last year to allow her to remain a Cabinet minister while away to give birth to their second child.

Braverman is a Buddhist who attends the London Buddhist Centre regularly and took her oath of office in Parliament on the Dhammapada’ scripture of Lord Buddha’s sayings.

‘Cup of Life’ creates Guinness World Record, one lakh and one menstrual cups donated in Kerala’s Ernakulam

Hibi Eden, Ernakulam MP who has been spearheading the ‘Cup of Life’ campaign, received the Guinness World Records certificate at Lulu Mall in Kochi on August 31.

Creating history and a Guinness World Record (GWR), one lakh and one menstrual cups were distributed for free in a span of 24 hours last week in Ernakulam. Hibi Eden, Ernakulam MP who has been spearheading the ‘Cup of Life’ campaign, received the Guinness World Records certificate at Lulu Mall in Kochi on August 31. Along with district administration, Indian Medical Association, with the support of Muthoot Finance, and scores of people collaborated for the world record.

Starting from Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium to Lulu Mall, the cups were distributed to the beneficiaries at more than 100 centres.

Reliance Industries to acquire majority stake in U.S. solar digitisation platform SenseHawk for $32 million

SenseHawk is an early-stage California-based developer of software-based management tools for the solar energy generation industry

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said it has signed definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in SenseHawk Inc. for a total transaction value of $32 million, including funding for future growth, commercial rollout of products, and R&D.

Founded in 2018, SenseHawk is an early-stage California-based developer of software-based management tools for the solar energy generation industry.

With customers throughout the solar asset lifecycle in the US, EMEA, APAC, and SEA, SenseHawk offers a Solar Digitisation Platform (SDP) SaaS for process optimisation, automation, and asset information management.

SenseHawk, along with RIL’s other investments in the new energy sector will be synergistic and create unique solutions with higher value to customers, RIL said in a statement.

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman, and Managing Director, RIL said, “We are committed to revolutionise the Green Energy sector and has a vision to enable 100 GW of solar energy by 2030.”

“In collaboration with SenseHawk, we will drive down costs, enhance productivity and improve on-time performance to deliver the lowest LCoE for solar projects globally and make solar energy the go-to source of power in lockstep with our vision for solar energy,” he said.

“It is a very exciting technology platform and I am confident that, with RIL’s support, SenseHawk will grow multifold,” he added.

Swarup Mavanoor, CEO and Co-Founder, SenseHawk, “Our team foresees strategic value in working with RIL, as one of the largest global infrastructure corporations, and look forward to this next phase in our growth.”

Rahul Sankhe, President and Co-Founder, SenseHawk said, “We are on a mission to improve the solar energy ecosystem, acquiring 50% of the market by 2025 and with RIL as our partner, we will accelerate on our execution toward that goal.”

The transaction is expected to complete before end 2022.

India overtakes U.K. to become fifth largest economy in the world

With India being the world’s fastest growing major economy, its lead over the U.K. will widen in the next few years

India has overtaken the U.K. to become the world’s fifth-largest economy and is now behind only the US, China, Japan and Germany, according to IMF projections.

A decade back, India was ranked 11th among the large economies while the U.K. was at the fifth position.

With record beating expansion in the April-June quarter, the Indian economy has now overtaken the U.K., which has slipped to the sixth spot.

The assumption of India overtaking the U.K. is based on calculations by Bloomberg using the IMF database and historic exchange rates on its terminal.

“On an adjusted basis and using the dollar exchange rate on the last day of the relevant quarter, the size of the Indian economy in ‘nominal’ cash terms in the quarter through March was $854.7 billion. On the same basis, the U.K. was $816 billion,” stated a Bloomberg report.

With India being the world’s fastest growing major economy, its lead over the U.K. will widen in the next few years.

“Proud moment for India to pip the U.K., our colonial ruler, as the 5th largest economy: India $3.5 trillion vs UK $3.2 trillion. But a reality check of population denominator: India: 1.4 billion vs UK 0.068 billion. Hence, per capita GDP we at $2,500 vs $47,000. We have miles to go… Let’s be at it!,” Uday Kotak, CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said in a tweet.

India has a population 20 times that of the U.K. and so its GDP per capita is lower.

“We just became the 5th largest #economy in the world, surpassing the U.K.!,” tweeted Anil Agarwal, chairman of mining giant Vedanta group. “What an impressive milestone for our rapidly growing Indian economy… In a few years, we will be in Top 3!”

India’s GDP expanded 13.5% in the April-June quarter, the quickest pace in a year, to retain the world’s fastest growing economy tag but rising interest costs and the looming threat of a recession in major world economies could slow the momentum in the coming quarters.

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 13.5% year-on-year compares to a 20.1% expansion a year back and 4.09% growth in the previous three months to March, according to official data released earlier this week.

The growth, though lower than the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) estimate of 16.2%, was fuelled by consumption and signalled a revival of domestic demand, particularly in the services sector.

Pent-up demand is driving consumption as consumers, after two years of pandemic restrictions, are stepping out and spending. The services sector has seen a strong bounce back that will get a boost from the festival season next month.

But the slowing growth of the manufacturing sector at 4.8% is an area of worry. Also, imports being higher than exports is a matter of concern.

Additionally, an uneven monsoon is likely to weigh upon agriculture growth and rural demand.

The GDP print will, however, allow the RBI to focus on controlling inflation, which has stayed above the comfort zone of 6% for seven straight months.

The central bank has raised the benchmark policy rate by 140 basis points in three installments since May and has vowed to do more to bring inflation under control.

Besides tighter monetary conditions, Asia’s third-largest economy faces headwinds from higher energy and commodity prices that are likely to weigh on consumer demand and companies’ investment plans.

Also, consumer spending, which accounts for nearly 55% of economic activity, has been hit hard by soaring food and fuel prices.

The GDP growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal was higher than China’s 0.4% expansion in April-June.

India ‘world’s pharmacy’: UNGA president

External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, after meeting Shahid, said India’s “Neighbourhood First” and the Maldives’ “India First” policies complement each other.

President of the United Nations General Assembly and Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid on Monday stressed on the role played by India at the UN. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, after meeting Shahid, said India’s “Neighbourhood First” and the Maldives’ “India First” policies complement each other.