nagapattinam l tuesday l august 18, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Ayush causes big upset, defeats World no. 1 Shi Yu Qi in delhi India’s Ayush Shetty causes biggest upset at the badminton World Championships on Monday. 2019 champion PV Sindhu too enters next round India’s Ayush Shetty takes a selfie with young fans after his win | Sayantan Ghosh three-game thriller in first round This is not the first time the 21-year-old has upset a top player. He has habbit of taking down some of the big names in world badminton like Li Shi Feng, Jonatan Christie and Kunlavut Vitidsarn before winning the Asian Championships silver. Shuttler, who hails from Bengaluru defeated Shi 21-14, 13-21, 21-19, in a gripping first round men’s singles contest. ■ 1st An Se-young and others advance ■ South Korea’s An Se-young, World No 1 in women’s singles, also entered 2nd round with a straight-game win over Kaloyana Nalbantov Apart from Sindhu & Ayush, the doubles players — Hariharan Amsakarunan/MR Arjun, Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand and Kavipriya Selvam/Simran Singhi — also advanced | P11 The win was ayush’s first over Shi in four meetings 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 New team Some of the most notable changes in the organisational reshuffle of the BJP Smriti Irani Ram Madhav Deepak Mhaskey IT cell chief Amit Malviya replaced by academic Deepak Mhaskey Irani, Madhav back in core nat’l team in big BJP rejig R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ 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. 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 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 express read Law soon to protect revenue officials Chennai: Plan is on to enact a separate law to give special protection to revenue officials, such as VAOs and tahsildars, who are involved in preventing illegal sand smuggling and transportation of minerals, Revenue Minister KA Sengottaiyan told the Assembly on Monday | P4 ‘3 AIADMK MLAs quit voluntarily’ Chennai: TN Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar informed the Madras High Court that the resignations of three dissident AIADMK MLAs were accepted and notified only after getting satisfied about the “genuineness and voluntariness” through a “limited inquiry” | P2 VCK will soon rule TN, says Thiruma Kallakurichi: The VCK will continue its travel with the ruling TVK and it will soon become the ruling party of the state, party chief Thol Thirumavalavan declared at the VCK conference in Ulundurpet on Monday. The event that saw five lakh footfall had to be stopped due to crowd surge | P5 The newly appointed team brings together organisational experience, energy and grassroots connect Prime Minister Narendra Modi RSS men in top team With Ram Madhav’s return as national vice-president, four senior RSS-linked leaders are now part of the BJP’s central organisational structure. The others are B L Santhosh (national general secretaryorganisation), Shivprakash, and Saudan Singh (joint secretaries-organisation) others are Kavita Patidar, Phangnon Konyak, and Sangeeta Yadav. Tawde, who was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha, 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. Among the unexpected appointments is that of academic Deepak Mhaskey as the head of the BJP’s social media department, replacing Malviya. Mhaskey will head the department as convenor, assisted by Priti Gandhi, Shivanand Dwivedi, Alok Bhatt and Arun Yadav. The organisational revamp marks the return of RSS ideologue Ram Madhav to the prominent position of national vice president. His induction is being seen as a move towards strengthening coordination between the RSS and the BJP . The revamp has also sought to ensure broad geographical representation. Among the national vice-presidents, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and West Bengal have received representation. The eight national general secretaries include leaders from Maharashtra, Delhi, Tripura, UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. Union Minister Piyush Goyal has retained his position as national treasurer, while B L Santhosh continues as national general secretary (organisation), a key post in the party . Release water to TN as per CWMA order: SC S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Karnataka government to ensure continued release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu in accordance with the orders of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA). A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta gave the direction while hearing a plea filed by Tamil Nadu. The state has sought a direction for Karnataka to release 36.635 to 37 tmcft of water till August 31, 2026, based on proportional formula. The CWMA had earlier ordered Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs or 1.036 tmcft per day to TN till August 27. On Monday, TN’s counsel senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan told the apex court that Kar- CWRC officials measure inflow of Cauvery water at Biligundulu | S Senbagapandiyan nataka was releasing water for irrigation within the state but it was not reaching TN. “Their reservoirs are at 76% capacity . They have released only 14.814 tmcft till August 16. There is still a balance of 20 tmcft to be released,” he added. When the bench asked Karnataka, why they have not released the water, senior counsel Shyam Divan (for Karnataka) denied the claim.  P5 Soren blinks, cancels all dodgy state exams muke s h r an j an & p r eetha na i r @ 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). 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 Cabi, net 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 Student-protesters in a jubilant mood after the Jharkhand cabinet decided to cancel the Combined Graduate Level exam, in Ranchi on Monday; Chief Minister Hemant Soren (left) with cabinet ministers making the announcement | PTI 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 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 govt were free to take legal recourse. As for student leader Devendra Mahto, on hunger strike for 16 days, he said he will soon reach the protest site to break his fast. Rahul had urged Soren to personally meet the student Additional outgo of `953 crore CM announces full waiver for crop loans up to `75K taken from co-ops Health cover sans income cap for elderly E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai/Nagapattinam Following requests from various farmers’ associations, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Monday announced full waiver of cooperative farm loans up to `75,000. As per the announcement, cooperative farm loans up to `75,000 will now be provided 100% waiver, loans between `75,000 and `1 lakh will receive up to `75,000 waiver, and loans above `1 lakh will receive a maximum waiver of `35,000. In all, 2.38 lakh farmers will receive additional waiver of `40,000 each, leading to an outgo of `953.06 crore more for the state exchequer. The government will, in total, waive loans worth `6,220 crore for 13.34 lakh farmers. Making the announcement under Rule 110 of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the CM said that, owing to an RBI directive issued on November 28 last year, the government was required to settle the entire amount with cooperative banks within 45 to 60 days. In contrast, the loan waiver announced by the AIADMK government in 2021 was repaid in 12 instalments by the DMK and AIADMK governments, he said. Vijay further said that loans totalling `5,267 crore had been cleared for 13.34 lakh farmers as of July 31. Farmers’ organisations criticised the expanded cooperative crop loan waiver, calling it “a hollow announcement”. Stating that the government failed to meet the assurances given to farmers, they said the latest waiver would benefit only 2.38 lakh farmers, while around 7.40 lakh small and marginal farmers would continue to remain in debt without a full waiver. TN Farmers’ Association general secretary PS Masilamani said the government had “again disappointed farmers” despite months of protests and talks with ministers.  P5 E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai DMK, TVK spar on drugs War of words over Amuthan’s murder resulted in DMK walkout. Law minister denied drug angle in the student’s murder and alleged links between drug trafficker Jaffer Sadiq and ex-CM’s family Law to punish home births The state will soon enact a new Tamil Nadu Public Health Act to punish homebased deliveries and deliveries conducted in places other than medical institutions, Health Minister Arunraj said | P2 Elderly people aged 70 years and above across Tamil Nadu can soon avail of free health insurance coverage without income cap under a new ‘Chief Minister’s Elderly Health Insurance Scheme’, Health Minister KG Arunraj said on Monday He made 115 . announcements during the discussion on the Demand for Grants for Health Department in the Assembly . Arunraj said the scheme will benefit 38 lakh people and beneficiaries can avail of super specialty treatment — including cancer treatment, organ transplants, and diagnostics services. The scheme will be available in all government and private empanelled hospitals. Under the existing Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS), a beneficiary can claim insurance cover of up to `5 lakh for treatments and surgeries, and `22 lakh for organ transplant.  P5 representatives and take steps to resolve the issue at the earliest. “I am writing to suggest that you personally meet representatives of the students. This will help reinforce the government’s commitment to resolve their concerns,” Rahul said. “Please do your utmost to hear them out and take appropriate action towards the resolution of this issue,” he said. Pvt N-plants: SC seeks clarity on judicial power to set relief amount Su c h i t r a kalyan mohanty @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday sought clarification from the Centre on whether courts are precluded from awarding fair and just compensation under the SHANTI Act in the event of a nuclear accident. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was hearing a petition filed by a group of retired civil servants and scientists, led by ex-bureaucrat E A S Sarma. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the batch of petitioners, argued that the Shanti Act exempts nuclear plant suppliers from liability and caps operator liability at a level grossly disproportionate to potential damage. “Irrespective of provisions of the Act, nothing shall preclude a constitutional court from determining the amount of fair and just compensation.... Central government owes certain liability under the Act,” the CJI said. The bench issued notices to the Centre and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board seeking response. The SHANTI Act permits private firms to set up civil nuclear plants but exempts them from liability beyond `3,000 crore. The Centre’s residual liability is capped at `4,500 crore. Major ISI-backed terror network busted, 200+ arrested in pre-I-Day swoop M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi SBN chief being probed for terror-related cases MORE than 200 operatives of the Pakistan-based and ISIbacked Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN) were arrested in coordinated raids across 14 States ahead of Independence Day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday. These arrests were made following 80 FIRs registered across states. Shah said the operation had dismantled the terror network and foiled plans to carry out SBN chief Shahzad Bhatti is being probed by NIA for several cases, including the March 2025 grenade attack in Jalandhar,the November 2025 explosion at Women Police Station in Sirsa and the January 2026 car-bomb blast at the Baldev Nagar police station in Ambala. “subversive attacks” around August 15. According to a statement by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the multi-state operation was conducted on August 12 using a realtime intelligence-sharing mechanism involving central agencies and state police forc- es. “More than 200 arrests were made across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala,” it said. “Uttar Pradesh accounted for the highest number of arrests at 62, followed by Haryana with 52, Delhi with 51 and Punjab with 44. Rajasthan recorded 15 arrests, Maharashtra eight and Uttarakhand five. Karnataka, Gujarat and Bihar reported three arrests each, while Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala reported two each,” the MHA said. F re s h FIRs were also registered in Delhi and Kar nataka. The MHA said the arrests were made under UAPA, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Arms Act, NDPS Act and Explosive Substances Act. “Security agencies recovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs), grenades bearing Pakistan Ordnance Factory markings, pistols and live ammunition during the operation. CCTV cameras allegedly used for surveillance and espionage were also seized,” a senior MHA official said, adding that the recovery of ordnance bearing Pakistani markings pointed to the network’s cross-border links. The MHA described SBN as a Pakistan-based terror syndicate involved in grenade, IED and petrol-bomb attacks as well as targeted killings in India. Shah said the crackdown demonstrated a resolve to dismantle terror networks.