Paralympics champion Sumit Antil wins javelin throw gold, breaks own world record
Hangzhou (PTI): Reigning Paralympics champion Sumit Antil on Wednesday clinched a gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games javelin throw F64 event with a world record effort of 73.29m on the third day of competitions.
The 25-year-old broke his own previous world record of 70.83m which he had thrown while winning gold at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris earlier this year. Another Indian, Pushpendra Singh won the bronze medal with a throw of 62.06m.
Antil had won gold in the men's javelin F64 event at the Tokyo Paralympic Games with a then world record throw of 68.55m.
It was the most productive day for India, picking up a whopping 24 medals, with 17 of them and all the six gold coming from athletics.
India's total medals stood at 58 (15 gold, 20 silver and 23
bronze).
Ankur Dhama became the first Indian to win two gold medals in a single edition of the Asian Para Games as he clinched the top spot in men's T11 1500m race with a time of 4:27.70. He had also won a gold in men's men's T11 5000m race on Tuesday.
Another Indian Sundar Singh Gurjar also set a new world record in the men's F46 javelin throw as he sent his spear to a distance of 68.60m en route to winning the gold. The earlier world record of 67.79m was in the name of Dinesh Mudiyanselage Herath of Sri Lanka.
In fact, Indians swept all the three medals in the men's F46 javelin throw event with Rinku (67.08m) and Ajeet Singh (63.52m) winning silver and bronze respectively.
It was 1-2 for the Indians in the women's T11 1500m event with Rakshitha Raju (5:21.45) and Killaka Lalitha (5:48.85) taking gold and silver respectively. Rakshitha had won a gold in the same event in the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta.
Haney and Nimisha Suresh Chakkungalparambil added gold medals in men's F37/38 javelin throw and women's T47 long jump events.
Haney produced a Games record of 55.97m while Nimisha cleared 5.15m to take India's gold medal tally to 15.
Pooja won a silver in women's F54/55 discus throw of 18.17m while Narayan Thakur and Shreyansh Trivedi picked up a bronze each in men's T35 200m and T37 200m with times of 29.83 and 25.26 respectively.
Indians finished second and third in both the men's T13 1500m race and men's F47 shot put events.
Sharath Shankarappa Makanahalli (4:13.60) and Balwant Singh Rawat (4:20.58) clinched silver and bronze while Rana Soman (14.42) and Hokato Hotozhe Sema (13.94) finished second and third respectively.
In para table tennis, Tokyo Paralympics medallist Bhavina Patel won a bronze in women's singles Class 4 after she lost to Gu Xiaodan of China 1-3 (7-11 11-6 6-11 7-11) in the semifinal.
India won three medals in para archery -- two silver and a bronze. Armless archers Sheetal Devi and Sarita won a silver medal after losing 150-152 to the Chinese pair of Lin Yueshan and Zhang Lu.
The other silver was won by men's doubles compound pair of Rakesh Kumar and Suraj Singh after losing 150-155 to the Chinese duo of Ai Xinliang and He Zihao.
Harvinder Singh and Sahil won a bronze in men's doubles recurve event after beating the Thai pair of Hanreuchai Netsiri and Pornchai Phimthong 6-0. Harvinder had won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympics and a gold in the 2018 Asian Para Games.
In para badminton, Pramod Bhagat and Manisha Ramdass settled for a bronze in mixed doubles SL3-SU5 after losing their semifinal match to the Indonesian pair of Leani Ratri Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani 19-21 14-21.
In para powerlifting, Zainab Khatun and Rajkumari won a siver and a bronze respectively in the women's 61kg category. Khatun lifted 85kg while Rajkumari had a successful effort of 84kg.
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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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