6 min readNew DelhiJul 25, 2022 11:21 AM IST
First published on: Jul 25, 2022 at 08:36 AM IST
Good morning,
The Big Story
The last time India won a medal at the World Athletics Championship was 19 years ago. Till the halfway mark of the World’s javelin throw final at Eugene in USA, it seemed like the wait would get longer. Known to throw his best in the first attempt, India’s Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra was in fourth place and the chances of landing on the podium looked remote. But those in the 24-year-old’s inner circle say that he has it in him to rise to the occasion. They call it the “Neeraj Chopra in the stadium button”.
🔴 In fact, Neeraj’s late Australian coach who coached him to a historic U20 World Championship gold medal in 2016 had seen this coming. In a 2018 interaction with The Indian Express, just months before he passed away, he shed some light on Neeraj’s technique, style and demeanour and explained why Neeraj was a class apart.
🔴 And what goes into keeping India’s greatest track and field athlete fighting fit? Besides the high-intensity training, a goodnight’s sleep is also high on his list.
🔴 Watch the throw that secured Neerja India’s first-ever silver medal in Athletics at the World’s.
Only in The Express
In this edition of the Idea Exchange, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar spoke about the IT Act and future legislation, internet shutdowns, and weaponisation of the Internet.
Acquitted for lack of evidence five years and two months after they were jailed in the 2017 Maoist attack case, the tribal men of Burkapal have returned to upended lives, empty homes, and a bleak future. They are too broken to even hold a grudge. On Saturday, when The Indian Express visited the village, the men were sitting together discussing finances — and the lives of the children their mothers had abandoned in the village.
From the Front Page
As part of a nationwide programme for Independence Day, shopkeepers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag were told to pay Rs 20 as a “deposit fee” for the tricolour or face action. On Friday, the Anantnag Chief Education Officer (CEO) issued a circular for schools in the district, asking students and teachers to pay the fee. This circular was later withdrawn. The announcement for shopkeepers was made from a loudspeaker-equipped vehicle in the district in South Kashmir.
A critical problem faced by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is delayed payments. It’s the smallest establishments — the micro and small units — which have been hit the hardest post-Covid with their pending dues touching Rs 8.73 lakh crore, almost 80 per cent of the total pending for the entire MSME sector until 2021.
With the first week of the Monsoon Session of Parliament ending in a washout as the Opposition locked horns with the government over its demand for an urgent discussion on price rise and the hike in GST rates, the Congress demanded that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla convene a meeting of the floor leaders to find a way out. Talking to The Indian Express, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said a middle path or an alternative solution could be found through discussions.
Must Read
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress have been through their fair share of ups and downs in Bihar over the years. Over the weekend, the relationship between the estranged allies hit turbulence again after a Congress spokesperson accused the RJD of evoking the “fear of the BJP and the RSS among Muslims” and the Tejashwi Yadav-led party cautioned the Congress to be careful while making remarks about it.
A police raid at a farmhouse in Meghalaya’s Tura has led to fresh cracks in the state’s ruling coalition — the National People’s Party-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, in which the BJP is a partner. On Saturday, the Meghalaya Police said a special operation at a farmhouse in Tura, owned by militant-turned-politician Bernard R Marak, now the vice-president of the BJP’s Meghalaya unit, had revealed that the premises was being “run as a brothel”.
The detection of monkeypox on Sunday in a 34-year-old Delhi resident, who had no history of international travel, marks India’s first case of local human-to-human transmission. In today’s explained, we discuss:
- What do we know about the disease?
- Can vaccines work against it?
- Why is there a surge now?
- Is monkeypox sexually transmitted?
And Finally
Mumbai’s civic body is planning to restore 18 ‘pyaus’ across South Mumbai and, in the process, create a heritage tourist circuit of these structures. Pyaus are drinking water fountains. Some were constructed with troughs for horses and cattle. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is expected to carry out this restoration project — in the making for a number of years now — across Colaba and Bandra areas.
Perceived as a predominantly male organisation, the RSS has been trying hard to shed the image. On Sunday, RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale even flagged the issue at an event. Hosabale said, “This seminar should have had some participation from women. There are no woman speakers either.” The lack of participation from women at RSS events had also been flagged by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the past.
In today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast, we discuss javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra winning a historic silver medal at the World Championships, and the challenges he faced in the lead up to the event.
Until next time,
Leela Prasad and Srishti Kapoor
Business As Usual by E P Unny
Top news on July 25, 2022 
Business As Usual by E P Unny
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