India

The Indian Premier League (IPL), apart from being lucrative, has been an excellent platform for uncapped players to fast-track their careers into the international arena. Like past editions, this year too uncapped players have dazzled in the IPL, putting forward their case for a selection in Team India. Sports writer Sattwik Biswal takes a look at five such promising players.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) finished seventh in IPL 2023 but their campaign was all about Rinku Singh. Each time he walked out to the crease, his team and fans expected him to finish games. He delivered that in some close run chases.

One such memorable game was against the Gujarat Titans. Leg spinner Rashid Khan had dented Kolkata’s run-chase with a hat-trick. A win from that position looked far-fetched. But Singh had other plans.

When Kolkata needed 29 from the last over off Yash Dayal, a single off the first ball got Singh back on strike. The left-handed batter then hit five consecutive sixes to pull off a stunning win for Kolkata.

The KKR made the right call by retaining the 25-year-old for 5.5m rupees ($66,521; £53,709) this season, however, his stocks are bound to rise when the next auction comes around.

In IPL 2022, Singh scored 174 runs from seven matches at an average of 34.8 and his strike-rate was 148.71.

This season, he played every match at the group stage and scored 474 runs at an average of 59.25 with a strike-rate of nearly 150.

He cut his teeth in domestic cricket by playing some 100 matches for Uttar Pradesh. With his stupendous show this season, Singh has definitely made a statement and his claim for a spot in the national side looks promising.

The batting exploits of Tilak Varma this IPL have forced people to take note of his talent.

His reading of the situation and ability to take off from the word go has given solidity to Mumbai Indians’ (MI) middle-order.

Despite missing out on the second half of Mumbai’s campaign due an injury, Varma scored 274 runs from nine matches at an average of 45.67 and a strike-rate of 158.38.

Bought by the MI for 17m rupees, the left-handed batter, who plays for Hyderabad in domestic cricket, is a strong contender for an India call up.

“I would be very surprised if he does not play T20 cricket for India in the next six to eight months,” former player and India coach Ravi Shastri told Star Sports.

“He’s got the maturity, he’s got the flair. He will make a world of difference to the Indian middle-order.”

His Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma also praised the 20-year-old’s fearless cricket. “What I like about his game is his approach, he is not afraid,” Sharma said.

“He is not playing the bowler, he is playing the ball, which is quite important for someone of his age coming out and playing the way he is.”

Yashasvi Jaiswal moved from Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai at the age of 12 to play cricket. He slept in tents and sold street snacks to earn money. He started at the famous Azad Maidan, a sports ground in the city that is often packed with children playing cricket.

His journey to the top began when he was spotted by a local coach at the grounds.

This year, the 21-year-old left-hander has taken this IPL by storm as an opening batsman for the Rajasthan Royals. The team failed to make the playoffs but Jaiswal finished with 625 runs from 14 matches, an average of 48.08 and a strike-rate of 163.61. He struck five 50s and one 100.

Jaiswal now holds the record for most runs by an uncapped player in an IPL season. He’s also hit the fastest half-century in IPL history off 13 balls.

Jitesh Sharma, the wicketkeeper-batsman of Punjab Kings, had an impressive season in 2022. He played 12 matches for the team, scored 234 runs at an average of 29.25 and a strike-rate of 163.63.

This year, Sharma created excitement with his batting ability while playing down the order. He finished IPL 2023 as the third-highest run-scorer (309 runs) for his team, while playing some crucial knocks.

Before the IPL, Sharma was part of India’s T20 side but didn’t get a chance to make his debut.

His consistency and fearless batting has made former cricketers back his inclusion in the Indian team.

Having played more than 60 first-class matches in domestic cricket, the 29-year-old is the only player from the Vidarbha team to score a century in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20 cricket championship.

He has the right credentials for a national call-up.

The right-arm seamer has come a long way after last year’s IPL where he got to play only two matches for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). This edition, Tushar Deshpande formed an effective partnership with Sri Lankan bowler Matheesha Pathirana. Having played all games for the CSK this season, Deshpande has flourished under the astute captaincy of MS Dhoni.

As a bowler he doesn’t come across as intimidating or has express pace, but he sticks to his ability and plan. Deshpande didn’t have a great start in first few matches – erring in his line and length. But backed by the team management and Dhoni, he bounced back to become CSK’s highest wicket-taker.

The 28-year-old is among the top-five wicket-takers in IPL 2023. With the experience of playing domestic cricket and for the Indian team, Deshpande could be an ideal option for the World Cup a few months away.

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features.

Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tenure as Indian prime minister brought his country’s emergence as a nuclear power, triggering fears of conflict with Pakistan.

These worries were heightened by increasing tension over the disputed region of Kashmir and a long confrontation between Indian and Pakistani troops.

Throughout his time in office, Vajpayee struggled to hold a diverse coalition of parties together.

But he gained a reputation as a man who fiercely defended India’s interests.

Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee was born in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh state, on 25 December 1924.

He studied politics and became a journalist and social worker while, at the same time, becoming active in the Quit India Movement, which campaigned to end British rule in the subcontinent.

After independence Vajpayee became a close aide of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) party.

He was elected to parliament in 1957 and, despite his relative youth, was seen as a rising star.

Like many BJS activists, Vajpayee was detained by the Congress party government of Indira Gandhi during the so-called “emergency” of 1975-77.

The BJS joined a number of political groups to form the Janata party, which swept to power in the ensuing elections.

As external affairs minister in the government of Morarji Desai, he made a historic visit to China in 1979 as well as making attempts to improve relationships with Pakistan.

Vajpayee resigned in 1979 and, when the Janata coalition lost power in 1980, he joined others in founding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), becoming its first president.

The BJP, an avowedly Hindu organisation, supported Indira Gandhi’s crackdown on Sikh militants who had occupied the Golden Temple at Amritsar.

However, Vajpayee strongly condemned the outbreak of violence against Sikhs that followed the assassination of Gandhi by her own Sikh bodyguards.

Throughout the 1980s the BJP attracted a new wave of hardline Hindu activists, many of whom took part in clashes against Muslims in December 1992 that resulted in more than 1,000 deaths.

In 1996 a demoralised Congress party lost the elections and the BJP became the largest political party in the new parliament.

Vajpayee was asked to form a government but, unable to pull together the various warring factions in parliament, resigned after only 13 days.

Two years later the BJP finally managed to form a coalition, known as the National Democratic Alliance, and Vajpayee was sworn in as prime minister.

It was an uneasy and creaking coalition but the failure of any coherent opposition kept Vajpayee and the BJP grouping in power.

Just weeks after the new government took office, India shocked the world by undertaking five underground nuclear explosions, the first tests since 1974.

Vajpayee’s announcement that the tests had taken place was made to popular acclaim in India and did much to boost the standing of the BJP.

He declared: “Our nuclear weapons are meant purely as a deterrent against nuclear adventure by an adversary.”

However, the fears of many countries about India’s action were strengthened when Pakistan carried out its own nuclear tests just weeks later.

The crisis in Kashmir, the mountainous territory between India and Pakistan claimed by both states, dominated Indian foreign policy.

Continual skirmishing between the armed forces of the two countries and Kashmiri separatists raised the spectre of an intensification of the conflict.

Throughout this period Vajpayee was constantly struggling to hold together a coalition of 17 diverse parties.

However, in the aftermath of the nuclear tests, he went out of his way to prevent any escalation of the conflict with Pakistan.

He boarded a bus to travel to the Pakistani city of Lahore for a remarkable summit with Nawaz Sharif, then Pakistan’s prime minister.

The two men, both under immense pressure and politically weak, agreed a number of confidence-building measures although the problem of Kashmir remained.

In 1999 the BJP finally achieved a stable majority in parliament and Vajpayee was again sworn in as prime minister.

Tensions with Pakistan continued after the seizure of power by the Pakistani army under Gen Pervez Musharraf.

And in December 1999, an Indian airliner was hijacked by Pakistani militants en route from Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, and Delhi and was flown to Afghanistan.

There was anger that the Pakistani authorities had allowed the aircraft to land and refuel in Lahore.

Vajpayee was forced to bow to the hijackers’ demands and release a number of Kashmiri militants in return for the hostages on the plane.

A free marketeer by inclination, he was criticised by unions and civil servants for his policy of privatising some of India’s government-owned corporations.

But his support for new hi-tech industries made India a global IT player and fuelled the country’s economic expansion.

Tensions with Pakistan, never far below the surface, erupted again in 2001 after an armed attack on the Indian parliament building in Delhi.

Police later discovered that many of the militants involved were Pakistani nationals and Vajpayee sent half a million troops to the border with Pakistan.

The stand-off lasted two years before Vajpayee began to make new peace overtures to Islamabad with an exchange of visits by high-profile officials.

He also cemented Delhi’s ties with Beijing by recognising Tibet as part of China and thereby improving Chinese investment in the Indian economy.

The BJP and its allies were widely expected to win the elections in 2004 but suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party.

A new Congress-dominated coalition took power with Manmohan Singh being sworn in as prime minister.

In 2005 Vajpayee announced he was retiring after more than 40 years in politics.

Like many Indian leaders before him, AB Vajpayee found himself having to hold together a sometimes fractious coalition to wield power.

But he was seen by many as a unifying force when divisions threatened Indian society and as a staunch defender of his country’s borders.

India is in the middle of an extraordinary economic experiment.

On 8 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave only four hours’ notice that virtually all the cash in the world’s seventh-largest economy would be effectively worthless.

The Indian government likes to use the technical term “demonetisation” to describe the move, which makes it sound rather dull. It isn’t. This is the economic equivalent of “shock and awe”.

Do not believe reports that this is primarily about bribery or terror financing, the real target is tax evasion and the policy is very daring indeed.

You can see the effects outside every bank in the country. I am in Tamil Nadu in the south of India and here, as in every other state in the country, queues of people clutching wads of currency stretch halfway down the street.

Mr Modi’s “shock and awe” declaration meant that 1,000 and 500 rupee notes would no longer be valid.

These may be the largest denomination Indian notes but they are not high value by international standards – 1,000 rupees is only £12. But together the two notes represent 86% of the currency in circulation.

Think of that, at a stroke 86% of the cash in India now cannot be used.

What is more, India is overwhelmingly a cash economy, with 90% of all transactions taking place that way.

And that is the target of Mr Modi’s dramatic move. Because so much business is done in cash, very few people pay tax on the money they earn.

According to figures published by the government earlier this year, in 2013 only 1% of the population paid any income tax at all.

As a result huge numbers of Indians have stashes of tax-free cash hidden away – known here as “black money”.

Even the very poorest Indians have some cash savings – maybe just a few thousand rupees stored away for a daughter’s wedding, the kids’ school fees or – heaven forbid – an illness in the family.

But lots of Indians have much more than that.

It is not unusual for half the value of a property transaction to be paid in cash, with buyers turning up with suitcases full of 1,000 rupee notes.

The size of this shadow economy is reckoned to be as much as 20% of India’s entire GDP.

Mr Modi’s demonetisation is designed to drive black money out of the shadows.

At the moment you can exchange up to 4,500 (£48) of the old rupees in cash for new 500 (£6) and 2,000 (£24) rupee notes.

There is no limit to the amount that can be deposited in bank accounts until the end of December, but the government has warned that the tax authorities will be investigating any deposits above 250,000 rupees (£2,962).

Breach that limit and you will be asked to prove that you have paid tax. If you cannot, you will be charged the full amount owed, plus a fine of 200% of the tax owed. For many people that could amount to be pretty much the full value of their hidden cash.

This is brave politics. Some of the hardest hit will be the small business people and traders who are Mr Modi’s core constituency. They voted for him because they believed he was the best bet to grow the economy and improve their lot. They will not be happy if he destroys their savings.

Mr Modi says he is simply delivering on his pre-election promise to tackle corruption and tax evasion.

He says he warned that he would squeeze black money out of the system and had already offered amnesties to those who declared their black money holdings.

And, so far at least, the policy seems to be popular, in spite of the long queues and the fact that much day-to-day business in India has ground to a juddering halt.

Most Indians resent the fact that many of the richest among them have used black money to evade paying their fair share of tax and are happy to suffer a few weeks of what Mr Modi called “temporary hardships” to see them face justice.

They also recognise the benefits of drawing more people into the income tax net.

India has very low rates of tax compared to many other countries. The tax-to-GDP ratio – how much tax is raised as a proportion of the output of the economy – was 17% in 2013.

The average across the economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – a club of mostly rich nations – was over 34%.

Demonetisation is part of a wider project to draw Indians into the formal economy and to get them to start paying the tax they owe.

Curbing tax evasion is part of the agenda for the “aadhaar” scheme, a giant digital database designed to give hundreds of millions of Indians a unique ID, and of the new Goods and Services tax.

And reducing tax evasion can only be good for India. The more money it raises in tax, the more it has to spend on useful stuff like roads, hospitals and schools.

The more the country spends on public goods like that, the faster the Indian economy is likely to grow – or so the argument goes.

So the big question is: will it work?

Some economists have questioned the decision to introduce the 2,000 rupee note. They say if the policy is designed to force people into the banking system why issue a higher denomination note – presumably an even more convenient vehicle for black money transactions?

But the headlines about chaos and confusion are a bit misleading.

There have been virtually no reports of violence despite the huge disruption this policy has caused.

The queues are orderly and the worst you hear are the irritated mutterings of those whose days have been wasted standing in line.

But Mr Modi needs to be careful. The new notes are in short supply and there are not enough smaller denomination notes to go around, so the banks regularly run out of cash.

That cannot go on for long without irritation turning to anger.

But some queuing may be excusable, because in one regard the policy has already been a complete success: it came as a surprise to the entire country.

Think what that means. The government managed to plan this audacious policy, printing billions of new notes without anyone letting slip what was happening.

Reportedly, even senior members of the cabinet were not told what was being planned, for fear that if word got out the entire policy would be undermined. The hoarders would have time to empty their mattresses and launder their stashes into gold or other assets.

Keeping a secret of this magnitude in India, a country that thrives on rumour and gossip, is nothing short of a triumph and surely a reasonable justification for a few hiccups along the way.

In the run-up to the Indian election, which gets under way on 11 April, BBC Reality Check is examining claims and pledges made by the main political parties.

One of the most dramatic actions taken by the ruling BJP was the withdrawal in 2016 of all high-value banknotes from circulation, almost overnight.

This effectively removed 85% of all cash notes from the economy.

The Indian government said this was intended to flush out undeclared wealth and counterfeit money .

It also said it would help move India towards an economy less dependent on cash.

However, Reality Check has found that there’s little evidence the ban has helped root out illegally held assets.

And compared with other emerging economies, the level of cash in circulation in India has remained high.

In November 2016, the two highest notes in circulation – 500 and 1,000 Indian rupees (£11) – were scrapped.

The surprise move – referred to in India as “demonetisation” – caused widespread confusion and led to street protests.

For a limited period only, the withdrawn notes could be exchanged for legal currency at banks – but there was a limit of 4,000 rupees per person.

Critics said the policy severely disrupted the economy, badly affecting the poor and rural communities that relied on cash.

The government said it was targeting illegal wealth held outside the formal economy, which fuelled corruption and other illegal activity and had not been declared for tax purposes.

It was assumed that those with large amounts of such cash would now find it difficult to exchange for legal tender.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

But by August 2018, a report published by India’s central bank said that more than 99% of the old banknotes in circulation prior to the ban had been accounted for.

This caused some surprise – and led to further criticism of the move .

It was suggested that there had not been much unaccounted for wealth held in cash in the first place – or if there had been, the owners had found ways to convert it to legal tender.

Not really, according to India’s central bank.

The number of fake 500 and 1,000 rupee notes found after the ban was only marginally higher than the amount from the previous year.

The new notes have features designed to make them harder to counterfeit, but fake versions of these have since been discovered, according to economists at the State Bank of India.

Another aim of the policy had been to improve India’s poor record on tax collection.

The idea was that if more transactions were carried out digitally and in the open, it would be easier to enforce tax payments.

An official government report last year said the note ban had indeed resulted in an improved tax take, largely by revealing more tax evaders.

In the two years before the currency withdrawal, tax collection growth rates had been in single digits.

Then in 2016-17, the amount of direct taxes collected increased by 14.5% over the previous year.

The following year, collections rose by 18%.

But the rate of growth in collecting direct taxes had seen a similar increase between 2008-09 and 2010-11, when the Congress party was in power.

And it’s likely that other policies – such as an income tax amnesty in 2016 and a new goods and services tax the following year – may have contributed as much to the growing tax take as demonetisation.

Against a long-term trend of a gradual rise in cashless payments, there is a significant jump at the end of 2016, when the notes were withdrawn.

But this reverted soon afterwards to the steady rising trend.

The overall increase over time may have less to do with government policy and more to do with changing technology and easier cashless payments.

As to whether the overall amount of cash in the economy has fallen, we can look at India’s currency to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio over time.

This is a measure of the amount of currency in circulation in proportion to the total value of goods and services produced.

This took a sharp dive immediately following the withdrawal of the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes – but by the following year, currency in circulation had reverted to pre-2016 levels.

And not only has cash usage not fallen, India also still has one of the highest levels when compared with other emerging economies .

Read more from Reality Check

Send us your questions

Follow us on Twitter

India and Australia have announced a migration deal as they aim to strengthen their economic cooperation.

The announcement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his counterpart Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Wednesday.

The deal aims to “promote the two-way mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people”.

They also discussed regional security amid rising tensions in the region.

India and Australia are part of the four-member Quad group, which also includes Japan and the US.

A scheduled meeting of the group in Sydney was cancelled last week after US President Joe Biden had to return to Washington for debt ceiling talks.

Mr Modi, however, continued his planned visit to Sydney after attending the G7 summit in Japan and travelling to Papua New Guinea.

This is Mr Modi’s first visit to Australia since 2014, and comes two months after Mr Albanese visited India in March.

Negotiations for the migration agreement had been going on for a couple of years. Australia already has a significant number of people who have migrated from India – census data shows that of more than a million people who moved to Australia since 2016, almost a quarter were from India .

According to a statement, the finalised migration agreement will also lead to the creation of a new scheme called MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme), which has been “specifically created for India”.

On Tuesday, the Indian prime minister said the two countries had also discussed increasing cooperation on mining and critical minerals and made progress in establishing an Australia-India Green Hydrogen Taskforce.

India and Australia are also working towards a comprehensive economic cooperation deal for which negotiations began more than a decade ago.

On Tuesday, thousands of people from the country’s Indian diaspora had turned up at one of Sydney’s biggest indoor stadiums, where Mr Modi was speaking at a rally.

“The last time I saw someone on this stage was Bruce Springsteen and he did not get the welcome that Prime Minister Modi has got,” Mr Albanese said at the event.

Mr Modi called the Indian community in Australia “a living bridge” between the two countries.

“The relationship between India and Australia is based on mutual trust and respect,” he said.

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features.