Sindhu exits, Satwik-Chirag duo enters quarters of Swiss Open
Basel (PTI): Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu failed to defend her Swiss Open Super 300 badminton title as she was shocked by unseeded Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a thrilling three-game women's singles second round match here.
World no.9 Sindhu, seeded fourth here, was stunned 15-21 21-12 18-21 by the 38th ranked Wardani in their first-ever face-off at the international level on Thursday night.
But second-seeded men's pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty kept India's flag flying by entering the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 12-21 21-17 28-26 win over Taiwanese pair of Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee.
The world No. 6 Indian duo will next face Danish pair of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede later on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, world No. 9 and fifth seed H S Prannoy made a shock second-round exit after losing in straight games against unseeded Christo Popov of France.
Prannoy, favourite coming into the contest, looked a pale shadow of himself in front of world No. 40 Popov as he failed to give any fight, losing 8-21 8-21 to bow out of the men's singles event.
But it was Kidambi Srikanth, who was the first to crash out on Thursday, losing to Hong Kong's Cheuk Yiu Lee.
Going by rankings, there was hardly anything to separate the two as Srikanth is placed 20th in the world as against his rival's 19th position.
It was a hard-fought match, but Lee kept his composure to emerge 22-20 21-17 winner in the singles pre-quarterfinal contest.
National champion Mithun Manjunath also bowed out in the second round, losing 19-21 10-21 to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei.
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Kerala govt to declare as ''dead'' people missing in Wayanad landslide
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 15 (PTI): The Kerala government has decided to declare as ‘deceased’ the people who went missing in the devastating landslide in Wayanad last year which will help provide compensation to their families.
The decision comes as a huge relief to the kin of people who were reported missing in the disaster.
As per a government order issued on Tuesday, local, district and state level committees will be formed including revenue department officials to examine the list of missing people.
The local level committee includes the panchayat secretary, village officer and station house officer of respective police stations. The committee will prepare a list of missing people and submit it to the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) for scrutiny.
The DDMA will examine the list and forward it to the state-level committee with its suggestions. The state level committee, comprising additional chief secretary (home) and principal secretaries of revenue and local self-government, will examine the list and forward it to the government, the order said.
The government will subsequently issue an order declaring them as dead and providing ex-gratia to their close relatives.
According to official record, 263 people were dead and 35 people were reported missing in the landslides that occurred on July 30 last year. The order directs the local level committee to closely examine the FIRs filed in connection with the missing people in the respective police stations.
The tahsildar or sub-divisional magistrate should conduct a detailed enquiry about the missing person and the findings will be published on the official website and government gazette.
A 30-day period will be given for filing any objections, after which the list of missing people will be published and death certificates issued to their immediate relatives, the order said.
