DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES JOURNALISM OF COURAGE `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION Happy New Year: Look where most of India’s medals come from — village & town, under Rs 5-lakh annual income, farmers’ families Since the record Asian Games 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 HOW THE 256 MEDALS STACK UP BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ■ Male ■ Female NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, DECEMBER 31 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,heisoutofajobnow—so thathisdaughtercouldpursueher track-and-field dreams. Two states away, the family of a pistol shooterfromMandididn’thaveto stretch—theyownapetrolpump. 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 Back story: more resources, better reach, help from unsung mentors MIHIR VASAVDA MUMBAI, DECEMBER 31 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 107 medals: a combined effort of 58 individuals and 49 teams. In all, these athletes, and the personal and professional arc of each,tellastory(see pages 15, 16) 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 TOTAL MEDALLISTS 256 In 2002, 36% of India’s Asian Games medals were secured by women. In 2023, the share went up to 43%. MALE 146 FEMALE 110 Family’s annual income when athlete started playing Up to `50,000: 50 Male 24 % Female 26 20 SONBHADRA TO HANGZHOU Son of a daily wager from Sonbhadra in UP, Ram Baboo (his home above) worked under NREGS in Covid. He won a race-walking bronze. OTHER FACES OF CHANGE Pages 15,16 `50,000-`5 lakh: 114 Male 71 % Female 43 45 More than `5 lakh: 92 Male 51 % Female 41 35 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 was broken. What explains this three-fold surge?Theanswerliesinthestoriesof 256Hangzhoumedallists. The Indian Express investigationthrewupaseriesoftellingnumbers. Take two: Around 65 per cent of the medal● listsarefromfamilieswithlessthanRs5lakhincome per annum and 33 per cent were bornandraisedinruralIndia. 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 E EXPLAINED MIHIR VASAVDA, VINAYAKK MOHANARANGAN, SHIVANI NAIK, PRATYUSH RAJ, SHASHANK NAIR & AMIT KAMATH CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 3 held for IIT-BHU sexual assault; 2 claim links to BJP’s IT cell Akhilesh raises link; BJP hits back, says arrest result of ‘zero-tolerance’ policy ASAD REHMAN LUCKNOW, DECEMBER 31 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 ATTACKS ON SHIPS Navy boosts Arabian Sea surveillance and security AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 31 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 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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CELEBRATIONS A RED initiative appears in today’s edition of The Indian Express. This page is an initiative of the marketing solutions team of The Indian Express Group and contains content paid for by advertisers. This page should be read as an advertisement. UTTAR PRADESH THOSE WHO DID SOCIAL INJUSTICE THINKING OF ‘NYAY YATRA’: NADDA PAGE 4 The Indian Express wishes its readers A HAPPY NEW YEAR Lucknow