Ayush defeats World no. 1 Shi Yu Qi in Delhi THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l tuesday l august 18, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION India’s Ayush Shetty takes a selfie with young fans after his win | Sayantan Ghosh India’s Ayush Shetty causes biggest upset at the badminton World Championships on Monday. This is not the first time the 21-year-old has upset a top player. He has habit of taking down some of the big names in world badminton like Li Shi Feng, Jonatan Christie and Kunlavut Vitidsarn. Shuttler, who hails from Bengaluru defeated Shi 21-14, 13-21, 21-19, in a gripping first round men’s singles contest. P13 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Irani, Madhav back in core nat’l team in big BJP rejig Blend of young and experienced leaders in new team; average age 50 RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi THE BJP on Monday revamped its core national team under party president Nitin Nabin, announcing appointments to key positions including national vice-presidents, national general secretaries, and national secretaries, apart from key posts in the media and social media departments and the party’s various Morchas. The reshuffle, which comes ahead of an expected Cabinet rejig, reflects a blend of both experienced and young faces, with the average age being 50. Among the 13 national vicepresidents, three—former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Baijayant Panda and Rekha Verma—have retained their positions while 10 have been elevated or inducted from other party responsibilities. Lal Singh Arya, for instance, has been promoted to national vice-president from his earlier The newly appointed team brings together organisational experience, energy and grassroots connect Narendra Modi, PM 2 leaders from Kerala T’Puram: Two leaders from Kerala have been included in the BJP’s national team, with former state president K Surendran appointed secretary and Anil Antony reappointed to the post. P4 position as national president of the BJP’s SC Morcha. Among the most notable changes is the return of former Union minister Smriti Irani, who had been kept out of party responsibilities for several years, to an important role as a national general secretary She . joins a group that includes prominent figures Satish Poonia, Harish Dwivedi, Sunil Bansal, Vinod Tawde, Biplab Kumar Deb, among others. The 16-member group of national secretaries includes four women, including Irani. The others are Kavita Patidar, Phangnon Konyak, and Sangeeta Yadav. Tawde and Bansal have retained their organisational responsibilities as national general secretaries. Several established party faces, including Arun Singh, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, Tarun Chugh and Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, have been dropped from the national general secretary-level organisational structure. In the rejig, several prominent faces were let go. These include IT Cell chief Amit Malviya, BJP Yuva Morcha president and Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya, Dushyant Gautam, Sanjay Mayukh, Saroj Pandey, Laxmikant Vajpayee and Arun Singh. Soren blinks, cancels all dodgy state exams mukesh ranjan & preetha nair @ Ranchi/New Delhi Twenty-four days after student protests in Jharkhand against exam irregularities, Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday blinked and agreed to their demand to cancel the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination and all exams conducted by a private agency, TSR Data Processing Pvt Ltd (TDPL) since 2014. The decision came hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to Soren urging him to “listen to the students”. The protesting students thanked the chief minister for the decision but said the protest will continue as their demand for a CBI inquiry is yet to be fulfilled. Soren said a decision has also been made to cancel all exams conducted by TDPL as also all results published by it. “Today we held a special Cabinet meeting , to bring this matter to a conclusion. We have decided to cancel all examinations conducted by TDPL, the results published by TDPL, and the selection or participation of any candidates through TDPL,” said Soren. The CM also said an exam reforms committee headed by senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal will be constituted soon. However, a new problem erupted as cancelling all exams would render around EXPRESS READ ISI-backed terror network busted, 200+ arrested in pre-I-Day swoop New Delhi: More than 200 operatives of the Pakistan-based and ISI-backed Shahzad Bhatti Network were arrested in coordinated raids across 14 States ahead of Independence Day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said. The arrests were made following 80 FIRs registered across states. Shah said the operation dismantled terror network and foiled plans to carry out “subversive attacks” around August 15. P10 Steamer agents rush to open offices as Vizhinjam port takes EXIM lane Student-protesters in a jubilant mood after the Jharkhand cabinet decided to cancel the Combined Graduate Level exam, in Ranchi on Monday | PTI 2,000 aspirants who had cleared them without jobs. These students have begun a protest outside the state secretariat. In his pushback, minister Sudivya Kumar said candidates whose exams were cancelled by the government are free to take the legal recourse. As for student leader Devendra Mahto, who is on a hunger strike for 16 days, he said he will soon reach the protest site in Ranchi to break his fast. Rahul had urged Soren to personally meet the student representatives and take steps to resolve the issue at the earliest. “Please do your utmost to hear them out and take appropriate action towards the resolution of this issue,” Rahul said. T’Puram: Ahead of the launch of commercial export and import (EXIM) operations at the Vizhinjam port on Tuesday, maritime service providers are rushing to establish a physical footprint near the deepwater facility. Leading the charge, steamer agents are making a beeline to set up offices around the port area to capitalise on the region’s emerging transshipment and trade boom. P4 Nithin Raj case: HC flays home dept over inaction against probe officer Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday took the home department to task for its failure to suspend the investigating officer who allegedly enabled Dr M K Ram, the accused in the death of Anjarakandy Dental College student Nithin Raj, to evade arrest. P4 18 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express