Indian trio shoots gold in women's 25m pistol event
Hangzhou (PTI): The triumvirate of Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan fired in tandem to shoot the gold medal in the women's 25m pistol team event as Indian shooters dominated proceedings at the Asian Games here on Wednesday.
Manu, Esha and Rhythm totalled 1759 to finish on top of the podium and help the country clinch its fourth gold medal in the ongoing sporting extravaganza. This was the second gold medal for India in shooting in these Games.
The sensational Manu also topped the qualification after finishing the last rapid-fire series with 98.
The Chinese bagged the silver medal with 1756, while the shooters from South Korea settled for the third position with a total score of 1742.
They claimed the top prize minutes after another trio of Indian shooters dished out an excellent performance to win a silver medal in the women's 50m rifle 3 position event.
Ashi Chouksey, Manini Koushik and Sift Kaur Samra combined to shoot a total of 1764 points in the qualification to finish second on the podium.
Hosts China won the gold with an aggregate score of 1773, while South Korea bagged the bronze with a total score of 1756.
Samra and Chouksey qualified for the finals as well by finishing second and sixth respectively, while Kaushik bowed out in the individual event by finishing 18th.
Sift scored a total of 594 to create a joint new Asian record for qualifying.
While Kaushik missed out on the final, Samra shot 100 in two series to finish with a total of 397 after kneeling and prone positions.
Samra and Chouksey were excellent in their three series, more so in standing section, to finish in the top 8 and qualify for the individual final.
Kaushik said after the event, "I'm happy for my teammates and that we got a silver in the team competition. I'm just focusing on the positives at the moment.
"At least I have a medal to show. I am not coming back empty-handed, so I am happy about that. I'm happy about my country, about my teammates, about my staff and all the people working with us."
On whether her tears after her competition were happy or sad tears, she said, "Both. I'm happy for my team and for my country, but I need to work on myself. There are mixed feelings but I'm just focusing on the positive sides at the moment."
In the women's 25m pistol, Manu (590) topped the qualification round, Esha (586) finishes fifth. Rhythm (583) ended seventh but since only two shooters per country are allowed in the final, she missed the cut.
Manu, especially, was at the top of her game as she shot nine 10s and 1 nine to get a total of 99 and maintain her hegemony in the qualification. The Youth Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion started with a brilliant 99/100 in her first rapid series to signal her intention.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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