Australia beat India by eight wickets in first Women's ODI
Mullanpur (Punjab), Sep 14 (PTI): Opener Phoebe Litchfield and Beth Mooney struck excellent half-centuries in a dominant batting display as Australia beat India by eight wickets in the first Women's ODI of the three-match series here on Sunday.
Batting first, India posted a competitive 281 for seven but Australia rode on Litchfield's 80-ball 88 and Mooney's unbeaten 74-ball 77 to complete the task in 44.1 overs on a day when the Indians left a lot to be desired with their ground fielding and catching.
Annabel Sutherland chipped in with an unbeaten 54 in 51 balls.
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Earlier, India were well-served by half-centuries from Pratika Rawal (64 off 96 balls), Smriti Mandhana (58 off 63), and Harleen Deol (54 off 57) after skipper Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bat in her 150th match in this format.
India were off to a great start after the opening duo of Rawal and vice-captain Mandhana added 114 in just under 22 overs.
Effective cameos by the lower-order batters helped India go past 280.
Brief scores:
India Women's: 281/7 in 50 overs (Pratika Rawal 64, Smriti Mandhana 58, Harleen Deol 54; Megan Schutt 2/45).
Australia Women's: 282/2 in 44.1 overs (Phoebe Litchfield 88, Beth Mooney 77 not out, Annabel Sutherland 54 not out).
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CBI books ex-AAI chairman for corruption in contract for food and beverage operator at airports
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has registered a corruption case against former Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman V P Agarwal for allegedly favouring a consortium of airport-lounge operators and a company that runs popular fast-food chains across the country in the contract for operating food and beverage services at the Chennai and Kolkata airports in 2012-13.
After three years of a preliminary enquiry into allegations of "cheating and gross misconduct", the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also booked then Member (Finance) S Suresh, then Executive Director R Bhandari, lounge operators Travel Food Services Chennai Private Limited and Travel Food Services Kolkata Private Limited, and Devyani International Limited, which runs several fast-food chains in India.
The questions sent to the companies remained unanswered.
The case concerns tenders for the master concessionaire contract for food and beverage services at the Chennai and Kolkata airports in 2012-13, officials said on Friday.
It is alleged that senior AAI officials engaged in gross misconduct, manipulated the tender process and made unauthorised changes to the terms and conditions of the master concessionaire contract in 2012-13 to favour the private parties.
The AAI had appointed IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (IIDC) as its consultant in August 2011 to help enhance non-aeronautical revenue, including earnings from food and beverage outlets, retail shops, advertising and car parking, at the Chennai and Kolkata airports.
Under the proposed master concessionaire model, a single agency would be awarded the contract to develop, operate and maintain all food and beverage outlets at each airport for 10 years to boost non-aeronautical revenue.
The CBI launched the enquiry in 2022 and submitted an extensive report material, suggesting cheating and a criminal conspiracy by public servants to extend undue benefits to private entities, prompting the agency to convert the enquiry into a formal case by filing an FIR.
The tender was a two-stage process. The first one was the Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage, with the shortlisted bidders moving to the finance stage in Request for Proposal (RFP).
According to the CBI, key terms in the RFQ were altered and conditions tweaked to favour certain companies at the RFP stage, and the minimum annual guarantee (MAG) was lowered and collusive bidding done by the two shortlisted bidders, who allegedly had conflicting interests.
The then Executive Director of the AAI, A K Mishra, had raised concerns about the collusive bidding and recommended recalling the tender with revised eligibility norms.
"However, the said apprehension was ignored deliberately by the accused public servants," the FIR says.
The FIR mentions the role of Amit Arora, who is under investigation in the Delhi excise policy case. However, he has not been named as an accused in this case.
"Amit Arora was also one of the prospective bidders at RFQ stage. On May 29, 2013, Amit Arora joined as Director of Devyani Airport Services (Mumbai) Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Devyani International Ltd.
"The entity, Devyani Airport Services (Mumbai) Pvt. Ltd, was incorporated on April 18, 2013. Amit Arora got associated with one of the bidders, Devyani International Ltd, after RFQ stage but prior to RFP stage," the FIR has alleged.
The second shortlisted bidder was a consortium of Travel Food Services Private Limited and its subsidiary, Authentic Restaurants Private Limited.
"Amit Arora acquired 99.99 per cent shares of Authentic Restaurants Pvt. Ltd and had also joined it as Additional Director," the FIR has alleged.
The CBI said the bids of the two shortlisted contenders were "nearly same and just higher than the mandatory minimum annual guarantee", with the consortium emerging as the H-1 bidder.
The enquiry found that Arora had direct and indirect interests in both bidders, which should have led to their disqualification.
"But, the Master Concessionaire Contracts were awarded to newly formed companies ... and the shareholders in both the companies who participated in the bidding process were same," the agency said.
According to the FIR, the bidders failed to inform the AAI about the changes in the ownership and shareholding, violating the undertakings submitted at the RFQ stage and creating a conflict of interest.
The enquiry showed that the Commercial Advisory Board (CAB) of the AAI was given three separate options for fixing the MAG for the Kolkata and Chennai airports, but it chose the lowest of the three options for both airports.
"Enquiry revealed that MAG was to be decided in a rational manner to achieve
optimum revenue for AAI. However, the accused public servant, in criminal conspiracy with private persons, deliberately and in order to facilitate undue benefits, ignored the opinion of consultant and opted for much lower amount," the CBI has said.
All these changes helped the consortium of Travel Food Services Private Limited and Authentic Restaurants Private Limited, and Devyani International Limited to emerge as shortlisted and the only bidders at the RFQ stage for both airports.
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