BHOPAL: The ranges at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy have a different feel to them starting today. After impressing the Indian shooting fraternity since its inception, the highly-rated shooting facility will welcome the world’s elite shooters for the ISSF World Cup (Rifle/Pistol), which marks a special occasion for hosts India.
It will be the eighth time that India will host a World Cup but the first at a location outside Delhi’s famed Dr Karni Singh Shooting ranges.
Barkheda, the town in Bhopal where the MPSSA is located, gives the feel of a sports city — with the Sports Authority of India centre and the state’s equestrian academy just a stone’s throw away from the shooting academy. The area is actually marked by the state government to bring up world class infrastructure across sports and make Barkheda a hub for both national and international tournaments.

In that context, world’s top pistol and rifle shooters will be the first to begin Barkheda’s journey as an international sports destination.

Image credit: NRAI
India’s joint-biggest squad of 37 shooters will see 22 players in medal contention, while the remaining 15 will be firing for Minimum Qualification Score only. Among those who are in the medal race, there are only three names who survived the disastrous Tokyo Olympics campaign. Rifle shooters Anjum Moudgil & Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and pistol ace Manu Bhaker were there in Tokyo, which was the second consecutive Olympic Games edition in which the Indian shooters returned empty-handed.
The new brigade didn’t disappoint at the Cairo World Cup earlier this year, as India topped the medals tally. But there will be a significant difference in the challenge Indian shooters face in Bhopal.

CHINA RETURNS FOR WORLD CUP
For the first time in an ISSF World Cup in 2023, China has decided to field a contingent, and their squad number (37) matches India’s.
When the Indians were up against the Chinese shooters at the 2022 World Championships, India finished behind China by a significant margin. Against China’s medal count of 58, which included 27 gold, the second-placed India finished with 34 medals, including 12 gold.

That’s the enormity of the challenge facing India, who fired a blank in Tokyo, where China topped the tally with 4 gold, 1 silver and 6 bronze medals.
With no quota places for Paris 2024 on offer in the tournament, the pressure will be a little less on the 198 participating shooters from 30 countries. That gives a little more breathing space to young guns like India’s world No. 1 Rudrankksh Patil (air rifle), Sarabjot Singh (air pistol), Esha Singh (rapid fire) and Rhythm Sangwan (air pistol and rapid fire).
THE FIELD
India’s main competitor China has gone a step ahead by fielding a young squad.

The current air pistol world champions from China, Liu Jinyao and Lu Kaiman, will be seen in action on the opening day of the competition on Wednesday when the men’s and women’s 10m gold medals will be decided.

Also heading the young Chinese unit will be 19-year-old rifleman Du Linshu who won an astonishing five gold medals at the Cairo World Championships in the junior category, besides Min Hou who won two 50m rifle junior gold medals. Among the talented Chinese teenagers is also the 18-year-old Lihao Sheng — the men’s 10m air rifle silver medallist from the Tokyo Olympics.

TOI Photo
USA’s eight-member squad includes Alison Marie Weisz, who became the women’s air rifle champion last year, when India’s Rudrankksh Patil topped the podium in the men’s event.

Among the other greats at the firing points at the MPSSA will be Germany’s Rio 2016 Olympics rapid fire pistol champion Christian Reitz and Switzerland’s Jan Lochbihler, who is the men’s 50m rifle prone world champion.
The only reigning Olympic champion shooter in the fray will be France’s rapid fire specialist Jean Quiquampoix.
The five competition days from Jan 22 to 26 will see 10 finals across Olympic events.

Vande Bharat Express from Delhi to Jaipur is expected to be launched in the coming weeks. The new semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express train has been modified for the Delhi-Jaipur route of Indian Railways. According to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Vande Bharat Express for the Delhi-Jaipur route had to be modified since double-decker trains run this route. This means that the height of the electricity wires on the Delhi-Jaipur route is higher.
A railway official told TOI that for Vande Bharat Express to run properly on the Delhi-Jaipur route a different type of pantograph had to be used. “Vande Bharat Express has a pantograph on the roof of every alternate coach. However, since the height of wires is more on the Delhi-Jaipur, ICF is making use of high rise pantographs,” the official said.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was recently in Rajasthan to review the maintenance provisions for Vande Bharat Express trains in Jaipur. The new Vande Bharat Express is expected to reach Jaipur by the end of this week. The North Western railway zone has already asked IRCTC to start making provisions for onboard catering on the new train.

The final route and fares of Vande Bharat between Delhi and Jaipur is yet to be decided. Another railway official told TOI that due to fewer halts the train will take less time compared to the fastest train on the route. “At present, it takes over 4 hours and 30 minutes between Delhi and Jaipur. With Vande Bharat we expect a reduction of about 30 minutes,” the official said.
The Delhi-Jaipur Vande Bharat Express is likely to be the 11th Vande Bharat train service on the Indian Railways network. The all air-conditioned chair car service will be the first Vande Bharat train for Rajasthan and the fourth from Delhi. At present, three Vande Bharat Express trains originate from Delhi; New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat, New Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat and New Delhi-Amb Andaura Vande Bharat.
Indian Railways aims to roll out 75 chair car Vande Bharat Express trains in total. A plan is in place to manufacture 200 sleeper versions of Vande Bharat Express, which will be a more premium version of the Rajdhani Express train service. Additionally, Indian Railways is also hoping to for the first time get technological prowess to make aluminium train sets in India.

NEW DELHI: Sources from the lieutenant governor’s office on Tuesday said the Ministry of Home Affairs had approved the Delhi government’s budget for fiscal 2023-24 and communicated it to the AAP administration. This comes amid a disagreement between the Centre and the city government.
Kailash Gahlot, Delhi finance minister, announced earlier in the day that the budget file had been resent to the Union home ministry for approval.
Gahlot had claimed that both a physical and electronic copy of the file had been sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs for review.

The presentation of the Delhi government’s Budget for 2023-24, scheduled for Tuesday, has been put on hold with the Arvind Kejriwal-led dispensation and the central government trading charges over allocations under various heads.
As the chief minister lashed out at the Centre, sources in the MHA said the ministry has sought a clarification from the AAP government as its budget proposal had high allocations for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives.
(With inputs from PTI)

The Allu Arjun blockbuster Pushpa The Rise took the box office by storm. The sequel is now being written, or shall we say re-written, as the screenplay for both part 1 and part 2 was completed simultaneously.

But here is the update. The screenplay is now being finalized by director Sukumar and has been modified to include one major Bollywood A-lister, preferably one of the Khans or Ajay Devgn, if not somebody else.

The sequel would not only have far superior production values than the first film, the sequel’s budget is almost twice what it was for the first film.

There were rumours of one Bollywood actor (Arjun Kapoor) playing the villain in Pushpa 2. This was a baseless, promotional, idle talk. Fahadh Faasil is the archvillain in the sequel to Pushpa.

But yes, one major Bollywood A-lister will join Allu Arjun in Pushpa 2. Sources say the A-lister will be seen in an extended cameo, like Salman Khan with Chiranjeevi in the recent Telugu film Godfather.