Badminton: Indian men one win away from first-ever team gold at Asian Games
Hangzhou (PTI): Kidambi Srikanth rallied his way to a thrilling win in a tense decider as India stood one step away from winning their first-ever gold medal at the Asian Games, reaching the men's team championships final with a 3-2 win over South Korea here on Saturday.
This is India's maiden entry into the final of the team event at the continental showpiece.
World No. 7 HS Prannoy showed nerves of steel to bounce back from an opening game reversal to outwit Jeon Hyeok Jin 18-21 21-16 21-19 and put India 1-0 ahead but Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost the first doubles 13-21 24-26 to world champions Seo Seung-Jae and Kang Min-hyuk as Korea made it 1-1.
Lakshya Sen then put up a dominating show to bring India back in business with a clinical 21-7 21-9 win over Lee Yungyu but MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost 16-21 11-21 to Kim Wonho and NA Sungseung in the second doubles tie as the two teams found themselves on level terms once again.
Srikanth, a 2021 World Championships silver medallist, then fought his way under pressure to get past world no. 163 Cho Geonyeop 12-21 21-16 21-14 and seal India's place in the summit clash.
India will look to live up to their Thomas Cup champions tag when they face multiple-time gold medallist China in the final on Sunday.
Saturday's win assured India of at least a silver medal in badminton at the continental championships with two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu winning the first in women's singles in the 2018 edition.
The last time the Indian men won a badminton medal in team championships was at the 1986 edition at Seoul where Sen's mentors Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar played a crucial role.
India had come into the event, having won 10 badminton medals, including three individual singles medals, three men's team bronze, two women's team bronze and one medal each in men's doubles and mixed doubles.
Following India's epic Thomas Cup win last year, expectations will be high but it is going to be an uphill task to go past China in the final.
The defending champions have the likes of World No. 6 Shi Yuqi, world no. 8 Li Shi Feng and world no. 20 Weng Hong Yang in singles and world no. 2 Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang and world no. 8 Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi in their ranks and India will need to punch above their weight.
Things started on a tense note for India after Prannoy lost the first game in the opening match of the tie.
However, Prannoy engaged Jeon in a close battle in the second game, moving neck-and-neck from 3-3 to 9-9 before the Indian took two points advantage at interval.
A drop shot helped Prannoy make it 12-9 as he slowly started dominating the proceedings. Back-to-back crispy cross court smashes took him to 15-11 and he soon grabbed five game points and sealed it with a smash to make a roaring return.
The Korean again led 11-8 in the decider and maintained it till 16-13. However, Prannoy got his acts together in time, producing a smash on his rival's backhand and then charged to the net to draw parity at 16-16.
Prannoy gained three match points with a beautiful backhand block and though he squandered two of them, he converted the next when the Korean went long.
In the second singles, Sen blew away Lee, who had created a flutter after stunning 2018 Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie on Friday.
From 0-3, Sen was soon up 8-3. The Indian's ability to inject pace in the rallies and also produce the winners at will saw him quickly move to 17-7. He sealed the opening game with a smash.
The second game was no different as Sen lead 9-4 and held a massive 11-4 lead. The winners kept coming thick and fast as Sen was up 17-5 in a jiffy. After a couple of good rallies, he sealed it with two straight smashes.
However, the tie boiled down to the third singles and things looked grim after Srikanth fell 1-8 behind and lost the opening game.
But Srikanth produced a gritty show to quickly grab a 12-4 lead but Cho reduced the margin to 16-19. To his credit, the Indian kept his cool to take the match to the decider.
It turned out to be a physical battle as the two moved to 4-4 and then to 12-12 in the third game but Srikanth won three straight points to extend his lead to 18-13 and sealed it comfortably in the end with the Korean going long.
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'Made in India' must become symbol of excellence, global competitiveness: PM
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called upon states to encourage manufacturing, boost 'ease of doing business' and strengthen the services sector to make India a global services giant.
Addressing the 5th National Conference of Chief Secretaries here, Modi emphasised the need for quality in governance, service delivery and manufacturing, and said the label 'Made in India' must become a symbol of excellence and global competitiveness.
He said India has the potential to become the world's food basket and the country must move towards high-value agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries to become a major food exporter.
"Called upon states to encourage manufacturing, boost 'Ease of Doing Business' and strengthen the services sector. Let us aim to make India a Global Services Giant," Modi said in a series of posts on X.
The theme of the three-day conference, which began on December 26, was 'Human Capital for Viksit Bharat'.
Modi observed that this conference marks another decisive step in strengthening the spirit of cooperative federalism and deepening Centre-State partnership to achieve the vision of a 'Viksit Bharat'.
Highlighting India's demographic advantage, he said nearly 70 per cent of the population is in the working-age group, creating a unique historical opportunity which, when combined with economic progress, can significantly accelerate the journey towards a 'Viksit Bharat', according to an official statement.
Modi said India has boarded the "Reform Express", driven primarily by the strength of its young population, and empowering this demographic remains the government's key priority.
He noted that the conference is being held at a time when the country is witnessing next-generation reforms and steadily moving towards becoming a major global economic power.
Underlining the need to strengthen 'atmanirbharta' (self-reliance), he said India must pursue self-reliance with zero defect in products and minimal environmental impact, making the label 'Made in India' synonymous with quality and strengthening the commitment to "zero effect, zero defect".
The PM urged the Centre and states to jointly identify 100 products for domestic manufacturing to reduce import dependence and strengthen economic resilience in line with the vision of 'Viksit Bharat'.
In higher education, too, he said, there is a need for academia and industry to work together to create high-quality talent.
He highlighted that India has a rich heritage and history with the potential to be among the top global tourist destinations.
Modi urged the states to prepare a roadmap for creating at least one global-level tourist destination and nourishing an entire tourist ecosystem.
He said it is important to align the national sports calendar with the global sports calendar.
"India is working to host the 2036 Olympics. India needs to prepare infrastructure and sports ecosystem at par with global standards," he said.
The prime minister said the next 10 years must be invested in the states, only then will India get the desired results in such sports events.
Every state must give this top priority and create infrastructure to attract global companies, he said.
In the services sector, Modi said, there should be greater emphasis on other areas like healthcare, education, transport, tourism, professional services and artificial intelligence, etc. to make India a global services giant.
He said India will soon be launching the National Manufacturing Mission (NMM).
States should work in tandem with the discussions and decisions emerging from the conferences of both chief secretaries and DGPs to strengthen governance and implementation.
The PM said similar conferences could be replicated at the departmental level to promote a national perspective among officers and improve governance outcomes in pursuit of a 'Viksit Bharat'.
In conclusion, he said every state must create a 10-year actionable plan based on the discussions of this conference with one, two, five and 10-year target timelines wherein technology can be utilised for regular monitoring.
The conference featured a series of special sessions that enabled focused deliberations on cross-cutting and emerging priorities.
It marks another important milestone in strengthening the Centre-State partnership through structured and sustained dialogue on national development priorities, according to the statement.
The PM's principal secretaries P K Mishra and Shaktikanta Das, Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan, members of the NITI Aayog, chief secretaries of all states and Union territories, and domain experts attended the meeting.
Anchored in the prime minister's vision of cooperative federalism, this conference serves as the forum where the Centre and states collaborate, designing a unified roadmap to maximise India's human capital potential and accelerate inclusive, future-ready growth.
It has been organised annually over the past four years.
The first conference was held in Dharamshala in June 2022, followed by subsequent conferences in New Delhi in January 2023, December 2023 and December 2024.
