Bhambri, Ramanathan off to winning starts in qualifiers

Times of India | 2 months ago | 31-12-2022 | 08:30 pm

PUNE: India's Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan started their campaign at the Tata Open Maharashtra with contrasting victories in the singles qualifying opening round on Saturday.While Bhambri dominated Diego Hidalgo 6-2, 6-2 in a lopsided match, Chennai-based Ramanathan, who entered the draw as a wildcard, registered a sensational come-from-behind 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 win against Otto Virtanen.South Asia's only ATP 250 event is being conducted by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) in association with the state government.Meanwhile, other three Indians in action -- Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sidharth Rawat and Aditya Balsekar -- suffered defeats in their respective matches.While Gunneswaran went down fighting 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-5 against the former world No. 45 Maximilian Marterer, Rawat made Zdenek Kolar work hard before losing the match by 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-1.Balsekar was defeated by Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-0.In other first-round matches, last year's semi-finalist Elias Ymer made progress after his opponent Miljan Zekic retired. Mattia Bellucci beat Vladyslav Orlov 6-4, 6-4 and Nikola Milojevic also thrashed Nicholas David Ionel 6-3, 6-2.The second and final round of the qualifiers will be played on Sunday as Bhambri, Ramanathan and others will look to win and secure the main draw spots for themselves.Bhambri and Ramanathan will take on Ymer and Bellucci respectively in the final round.Earlier in the day, 15-year-old rising India star Manas Dhamne was handed a main draw wildcard in the singles. The Pune-born tennis prodigy Dhamne will be seen competing in the main draw alongside the global tennis stars including world number 17 Marin Cilic.The main draw will take place from January 2 to 7.

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18% Hike In Mumbai-Pune Expressway Toll Tax From April 1. See New Rates

Ndtv | 16 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 09:05 am

Ndtv

16 hours ago | 29-03-2023 | 09:05 am

Toll would remain the same till 2030 after this hike, officials saidMumbai: Toll for vehicles on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the first access-controlled road of the country, will increase by 18 per cent from April 1, officials of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) said.A senior MSRDC official said today that though the toll increases by six per cent annually, it is implemented cumulatively at 18 per cent after every three years, as laid down in a government notification of August 9, 2004.The new toll will be Rs 320 for four-wheelers like cars and jeeps instead of the current Rs 270, and Rs 495 for vehicles like mini-bus and tempos instead of the current Rs 420, another official said.Toll for two-axle trucks will increase to Rs 685 from the current Rs 585. For buses, it will increase to Rs 940 from Rs 797.Three-axle trucks will be charged Rs 1,630 instead of Rs 1,380 and multi-axle trucks and machinery-vehicles will have to pay Rs 2,165 instead of current Rs 1,835.Toll would remain the same till 2030 as there would not be any revision after three years in 2026, officials said.About 95 km long, the six-lane Mumbai-Pune Expressway was fully operationalised in 2002. Toll is collected at five toll plazas, of which ones at Khalapur and Talegaon are the main ones.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comAround 1.5 lakh vehicles use the Expressway everyday.(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

25 years after death penalty, school record shows convict was juvenile, SC sets him freePremium Story

The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 28-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

The Indian Express

1 day ago | 28-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

He has been on the death row for about 25 years, after being arrested for murder and sent to Pune’s Yerawada jail. During all those years behind bars, this primary school dropout taught himself Marathi and English, and obtained an MA in Sociology. But for the Supreme Court, what really mattered when setting Niranaram Chaudhary free on Monday was a date from the admissions register of a school in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.The register, from Rajkiya Adarsh Uch Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Jalabsar, showed that Chaudhary had dropped out of Class 3 on May 15, 1989.And so, the apex court ruled that he was a juvenile while being sentenced to death in 1998 with two others for the murder of five members of a family, including a pregnant woman and two children, in a “rarest of the rare” case.On Monday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice K M Joseph, directed that Chaudhary “be set free forthwith from the correctional home in which he remains imprisoned, as he has suffered imprisonment for more than 28 years” after his arrest in 1994.Chaudhary’s death sentence had earlier been confirmed by the Bombay High Court and twice by the Supreme Court in 2000. However, abandoned by his family at the time of conviction, Chaudhary’s name and age were incorrectly recorded by the Pune court that awarded him the death penalty. In 2018, with the intervention of Project 39A, a criminal reforms advocacy group based in National Law University, Delhi, Chaudhary moved the Supreme Court again.He also argued that his actual name was Niranaram, which was wrongly recorded by the court as “Narayan”.In January 2019, the Supreme Court had referred the case to the Principal District and Sessions Judge in Pune to decide on Chaudhary’s status as a juvenile at the time of conviction. The inquiry led to the school admissions register in Jalabsar.“Apart from the documents of the school, there is a family card, to which we have referred to earlier. The date of issue of Family Card is 1989 and, in this card, issued by the State Government, Nirana’s age is shown to be 12 years,” the Supreme Court said in its final verdict.“Going by that certificate, his age at the time of commission of offence was 12 years and 6 months. Thus, he was a child/ juvenile on the date of commission of offence for which he has been convicted, in terms of the provisions of the 2015 Act. This shall be deemed to be the true age of Niranaram, who was tried and convicted as Narayan,” the Supreme Court said.Anup Surendranath, director of Project 39A, told The Indian Express that Chaudhary is currently in a jail in Nagpur. “Once the Pune Sessions Court orders his release, the Nagpur prison will set him free,” he said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to address India-Africa Army Chiefs’ Conclave in Pune

The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 28-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

The Indian Express

1 day ago | 28-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will address the strategically significant India-Africa Army Chiefs’ Conclave in Pune Tuesday (March 28).The conclave focuses on strengthening defence ties and building an institutionalised framework for better military-to-military cooperation between India and African countries.The Army chiefs’ conclave is being held on Tuesday and Wednesday. It includes talks by renowned speakers on the issues of the India-Africa defence partnership and the Indian defence industry’s potential and contribution towards regional security.In a tweet on Monday night, Rajnath Singh said, “Tomorrow, 28th March, I shall be in Pune, Maharashtra. Shall address the India-Africa Army Chiefs’ Conclave in Pune. Also, looking forward to interacting with the students of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, during the Pune visit.”Tomorrow, 28th March, I shall be in Pune, Maharashtra. Shall address the India-Africa Army Chiefs’ Conclave in Pune. Also, looking forward to interact with the students of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, during the Pune visit.— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) March 27, 2023Along with the deliberations on strengthening defence ties, the participants will be exposed to the Indian defence industry and the ongoing impetus under various mechanisms like Make-In-India and Atmanirbhar Bharat. Interactions with various defence production industries and African representatives are also planned during the conclave, wherein industries will display their equipment and showcase their defence production capabilities.At Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, the defence minister will inaugurate the residential complex for MBA Students. He will preside over the Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw Memorial Lecture, organised by Symbiosis International Deemed University.

India’s prestigious theatre event META looks ahead at post-pandemic storytelling

The Indian Express | 4 days ago | 25-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

The Indian Express

4 days ago | 25-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

When the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META), one of India’s core cultural events, returned to the offline stage in 2022, it marked a fightback of the arts against the pandemic. The presence of a profit-making corporate body, which is beholden to shareholders, has been a boost for theatre for the last 18 years. This year, the packed calendar of META is a sign of hope.META received almost 400 entries for the competitions from across the country and languages, ranging from Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada to Bengali and Marathi, besides English and Hindi. Ten plays have been shortlisted and will play at Mandi House halls in Delhi from March 23 to 29. “The plays that have come have strong messages in the scripts. Many are social commentaries on situations that have risen due to pandemic,” says Jay Shah, Head, Cultural Outreach, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. Excerpts from an interview with Shah:How did META support artists during the pandemic, when theatre artists needed financial and organisational support?As a corporate that supports this art form, we were aware of the realities and our solution was to keep doing what we’ve been doing. In the last couple of years, when we were not able to hold the traditional META — because there was not a lot of production happening and no way a producer could present a theatre in the normal format — we made sure that we had a digital format. We presented plays and gave the honorariums that we would have under normal circumstances. Just by the act of presenting the plays, we were saying that the META platform was supporting the art form.Has the budget for META been impacted because corporates are trying to make up for losses of the COVID years?The management at Mahindra has been very kind and not impacted the budget at all. The money and the commitment remains the same. For 18 years, we have been unwaveringly stood by theatre. More than the financial commitment, it is a psychological commitment of META that has been significant.One of the present difficulties has been the lack of staff, especially carpenters and tailors, among other supporting staff, as they returned to villages during the pandemic and took up other employment. How is META handling this gap?The people we are working with are all happy to come back to work and do something that is productive and gives them joy. We have to acknowledge that the cultural calendars in most cities is overflowing. I was in Bengaluru for the Mahindra Percussion Festival 2023, and there were five different cultural events that were happening simultaneously.How has the quality or storytelling changes in this META as the plays were created or revived after the upheaval of the pandemic?It is a cliched statement that art is reflective of society but artists work with the situations around them. The 10 final productions have very topical content. There are stories of trials and tribulations as well as joy and the feeling of triumph. The stories give out hope and positivity as well as a feeling of resilience.The plays that have made it to the final round of META are:• Burn Out: An Assamese production, directed by Barnali Medhi and produced by Pardam Trust• Chaai Garam: The play is by Nagaon, Assam-based Sahidul Haque and produced by Orchid Theatre. It is in Assamese, Baganiya and Gibberish• Daklakatha Devikavya: The Kanna play is directed by Lakshmana K P and produced by Jangama Collective of Bengaluru.)• Hunkaro: Pune-based Mohit Takalkar has worked with Jaipur-based Ujaagar Dramatic Association to create a play in Marwadi, Hindi, Awadhi and Haryanvi.• Namak: Directed by Srinivas Beesetty and produced by Rangashankara, the play is in Hindi• Lavani ke Rang: Bhushan Korgaonkar looks into the traditional form of Lavani in this HIndi-Marathi production• Notion(s): In Between You & Me: This Delhi play in the English language is directed by Savita Rani and produced by Serendipity Arts Foundation and Rani.• Nooramma: Biriyani Durbar: A Tamil play, it is directed by Srijith Sundaram and produced by Kattiyakkari and Srijith Sundaram from Chennai• The Departed Dawn: A non-verbal play directed by Imphal-based Victor Thoudam and Bimal Subedi and produced by Ashoka Theatre and Serendipity Arts• Via Savargaon Khurd: A Marathi production directed by Suyog Deshpande and produced by Aasakta Kalamanch from Pune📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!

Traffic cop gets dragged on car’s bonnet after he tried to stop it for violation in Pune

The Indian Express | 4 days ago | 25-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

The Indian Express

4 days ago | 25-03-2023 | 12:45 pm

A traffic constable was allegedly dragged on a car’s bonnet for about 50 metres in Pune’s Khadki after he tried to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation Friday night. The incident took place near Church Chowk opposite the Khadki police station, officers said.The car’s driver Suraj Jadhav, 29, a resident of Dehu Road, has been arrested. The traffic constable has been identified as Ganesh Shivaji Rabade.According to the police, the incident happened at 8.45 pm. The constable was regulating traffic at Khadki underpass when he saw an Accent car cut the lane. On noticing the violation, he tried to stop the car but the driver did not halt, but instead allegedly tried to mow him down.“To save himself, Rabade jumped on the car’s bonnet and clutched on to something that he could get hold of. The driver continued to drag him even though he kept shouting. Those who noticed the incident, intervened and forced the driver to stop the car. Rabade was thrown off the car and sustained injuries to his left ankle and both knees,” Police Sub-Inspector Shamal Patil said.Jadhav has been booked under sections 353, 332 and 336 of the Indian Penal Code.

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