DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 12 PAGES AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION HappyNewYear:Lookwhere mostofIndia’smedalscome from—village&town,under Rs5-lakhincome,farmfamilies Since the record Asiad haul this October, The Indian Express tracked down all 256 medallists to plot each one’s journey to the podium. Their income, place of origin, education, first break, the numbers tell a story of challenge, change — and enduring hope ■ Male ■ Female CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 34 21 13 Home Army 25 20 13 12 20 0 12 0 12 College 5 5 0 Behind the success: last-mile delivery, more resources, some homespun heroes 76 135 53 34 42 82 21 10 11 PG 24 13 11 Graduate EXPLAINED E ■ Male ■ Female ■ Total Class 12 INDIA’S TALLY at the 2002 Asian Games was 36 medals. In 2014, that count climbed to 57. And 2023 saw the giant leap, as the century barrier wasbroken.What explains this three-fold surge? ● Theanswer liesin the stories of 256 Hangzhou medalists. The Indian Express investigation threw up a series of telling numbers.Taketwo:Around65per centofthemedalistsarefromfam- Education-wise breakup of medallists Class 10 or below MUMBAI, DECEMBER 31 146 ilies with less than Rs 5 lakh income per annum and 33 per cent werebornandraisedinruralIndia. Thattheyaremakingittothe podium underlines the significant strides in last-mile connectivity in the sporting ecosystem underwhichfundsandtechnical supportarereachingtheathletes timely and efficiently. From government policies, like the Target Olympic Podium Scheme(TOPS),tokeytimelyinterventions by not-for-profit organisations, these elite athletes have a much wider range of resources at their disposal than their predecessors. AHMEDABAD, DECEMBER 31 THE AHMEDABAD city police Sunday registered an FIR of rape andcriminalintimidationagainst Cadila Pharmaceuticals Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Rajiv Modi and employee Jhonson Mathew based on a complaintbyaBulgarianwoman. The police action has come following a recent Gujarat High Court order that set asidea magisterial court order that had rejected her complaint. Confirming the registration of the FIR at Sola High Court Police Station against Modi and Mathew, Assistant Commissioner of Police H M Kansagara said, “Yes, we have registered an FIR in the case on the basis of the allegations leveled by the woman. An investigation will follow". According to Sola High Court police,the duohasbeencharged with rape, criminal force to outrage a woman's modesty, and criminal intimidation under the provisions of Indian Penal Code. The complainant, who was employed as a flight attendant and a personal assistant of CMD ModiinAugust2022,hasalleged several instances of sexual harassmentbetweenFebruaryand March 2023. She also alleged that she was fired in April 2023 after she refused to surrender to CMD Modi’s “illicit demands”. In July, the woman moved the magisterial court allegedly CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The Indian Express wishes its readers A HAPPY NEW YEAR 110 Family’s annual income when athlete started playing Up to `50,000: 50 Male 24 Female 26 20% `50,000 -`5 lakh: 114 Male 71 Female 43 45% More than `5 lakh: 92 Male 51 Female 41 35% Family’s occupation when athlete started playing ■ Male ■ Total SAI EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE THE INDIAN Space Research Organisation(ISRO)issettobegin the new year with the launch of itsfirstX-rayPolarimeterSatellite (XpoSat),aspace-basedobservatory to study X-ray polarisation anditscosmicsources—celestial bodiesincludingblackholes,neutron stars and magnetars. The PSLV-C58 rocket, with primary payload XPoSat and 10 other satellites to be deployed in low-earthorbits,isscheduledtolift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.10 am on Monday. XpoSat is only the world's second such mission. In 2021, NASA had launched Imaging Xray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) tooperateandperformX-raypolarisationmeasurements within the soft X-ray band, whereas XPoSat will operate within the medium X-ray band. It will carry two payloads -POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing). According to ISRO, POLIX is expectedtoobserveabout40bright astronomicalsourcesof different categories;XSPECTwillstudythe electromagnetic spectrum generated by different matter. FEMALE ■ Female 62 56 40 24 16 6 44 35 22 17 19 21 38 10 21 14 27 34 Business 107 medals: a combined effort of 58 individuals and 49 teams. In all, these athletes, and the personal and professional arc of each, tell a story (see pages 11, 12) of their belief in sports as their level playing field, flattened by the sheer dint of their talent and determinationandbackedupby institutional support and a rapidly reforming ecosystem (see adjacent story). Since the Games ended, 15 reporters of The Indian Express tracked each one in the Asian contingent down, curated their CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After HC order, FIR filed against Cadila CMD for rape of Bulgarian woman NEW DELHI, BENGALURU, DECEMBER 31 Professional services BY UNNY MALE Army BUSINESS AS USUAL personal data, got the athletes to fill a questionnaire that detailed theirremarkablebackstories.An investigation of these show telling trends shaping India’s ever-evolving sporting ecosystem at whose core is an inescapable fact: sports is becoming more of a great leveller. Consider the key findings of the investigation into the 256 athletes. ■ The female-male percentage ratio among the medal winners was 43:57, pointing to a shrinking gender gap when it comes to sporting success. Two decades ago, the ratio was approximately 36:64 and at the 2018 edition, it stood at roughly 40:60. ■ As many as 68 of the 256 podium finishers — just over a quarter — were born and raised inoneof thetop25citiesbypopulation. Rural areas account for a third of the medallists. FOLLOWING RECENT attacks on merchant vessels in the region, the Indian Navy said on Sunday that it has increased maritime security and surveillance in centralandnorthArabianSeabydeploying frontline destroyers, frigates as well as long-range maritime patrol aircraft. In a statement, the Navy said that task groups comprising destroyers and frigates have been deployedtoundertakemaritime security operations and render assistance to merchant vessels in case of any incident. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ANONNA DUTT & ANJALI MARAR 256 Government Page 11,12 Son of a daily wager from Sonbhadra in UP, Ram Baboo did labour work under MGNREGA during Covid. He won a race-walking bronze Local ground MIHIR VASAVDA NEARLY TWO months after a female student was allegedly disrobed and sexually assaulted on the IIT-BHU campus, leading to widespread protests, police arrested three men in connection with the crime. ThethreeaccusedwereidentifiedasSakshamPatel(20),who has studied till class 10; Kunal Pandey (28), a B.Com graduate who ran a shop; and Abhishek Chauhan (22), who failed his class 10 examination and worked at a saree shop. All three are residents of Varanasi. Two of the three accused, in their social media profiles, claimed they were associated with the BJP’s IT cell in Varanasi. While Kunal Pandey said he was a coordinator for the BJP IT cell's Varanasi unit, Saksham Patel said he was a co-coordinator. A senior office-bearer of the BJP media team for Kashi zone told The Indian Express: “Patel was a co-coordinator of the BJP IT cell, Varanasi unit, while PandeywasacoordinatorforBJP ITcell Varanasi unit.Theyarenot part of the new team that was formed after Diwali.” UP BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary did not respond to calls and messages for comments. State BJP IT cell chief KameshwarNathMishradidnot comment on whether the accused were associated with the party’s IT cell in Varanasi. The police said the three were arrested Saturday night. “They have confessed to the crime. We have recovered mobile phones from the accused, and the motorcycle they used in the crime,” Varanasi DCP (Kashi zone) Ram Sevak Gautam told The Indian Express on Sunday. A local court Sunday evening sentthethreeaccusedtojudicial custody for 14 days. Askedif theaccusedwereassociated with the BJP IT cell, DCP Gautam said, “We asked them ISRO’s New Year launch: Special space observatory, X-ray telescope TOTAL MEDALLISTS Daily wager SONBHADRA TO HANGZHOU OTHER FACES OF CHANGE Agriculture 98 62 50 48 37 25 LUCKNOW, DECEMBER 31 NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 31 Where did you start playing your sport? School ASAD REHMAN AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, DECEMBER 31 Academy Akhilesh raises link; BJP hits back, says arrest result of ‘zero-tolerance’ policy Navy boosts Arabian Sea surveillance and security HOW THE 256 MEDALS STACK UP RAISING A heptathlete daughter was a struggle for a father bankingontheearningsof histinytea shack in Ballari, Karnataka. That isn’t much of an issue for a coffee plantation owner in Coorg whose son, early on, decided that tennis was his calling. A petrol pump station attendant in Faridabad cut corners — injured, he is out of a job now — so that his daughter could pursue her track-and-field dreams. Two states away, the family of a pistolshooterfromMandi didn’t have to stretch — they own a petrol pump. Ahockeyforward’sfatherhas a small sari shop in Varanasi while a Chennai-based tennis player’s parents run a textile business. A sprinter’s father is a waiter at a hotel in Pallakad; a badminton star’s family owns a hotel in Mumbai. On the face of it, a typical India story, written across the sprawl of geography and the hard divides of class and social circumstances.Yet,thisyearend, these are also 256 Happy New Year postcards, from today’s India to tomorrow’s. For, these athletes grew up in worlds apart and had it not been for sports — and their excellence — their paths would have never intersected.Astheydidthisyear, in September-October 2023 when, at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, they stepped up to thepodiumtogetIndiaitsrecord 3 held for IIT-BHU sexual assault; two claim links to BJP’s IT cell ATTACKS ON SHIPS In 2002, 36% of India’s Asian Games medals were secured by women. In 2023 it is 43%. MIHIR VASAVDA, VINAYAKK MOHANARANGAN, SHIVANI NAIK, PRATYUSH RAJ, SHASHANK NAIR & AMIT KAMATH `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 * 1 — Not Available; parents passed away when Aman Sehrawat started playing ** Information of two athletes not available Also reported by: Andrew Amsan, Devendra Pandey, Nihal Koshie, Namit Kumar, Rahul Pandey, Sayak Dutta, Anil Dias, Venkata Krishna, Tushar Bhaduri CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad