Here is the complete reproduction of the article “Sops to ring in a new India-made phone next year” from the August 22, 2026 edition of the Mint. It spans the main coverage on Page 16 and the continuation on Page 13.
Sops to ring in a new India-made phone next year
IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said three homegrown companies are in talks with MeitY to apply for ‘Target Segment 2’
By Vaeshnavi Kasthuril & Devina Sengupta Bengaluru / Mumbai
After a decade-long hiatus, during which two out of every three smartphones sold in India were Chinese brands, homegrown phone makers could make a comeback as early as next year, information and technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
Speaking at a press roundtable notifying the government’s ₹62,500-crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS), Vaishnaw said three homegrown companies are in talks with the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) to apply for the scheme’s ‘Target Segment 2’, which focuses on bringing Indian smartphone brands back to the market.
“There are three companies at the moment, the names of which I cannot reveal, that we are in talks with. There is one most important point that the government has emphasized upon: that the core design-linked intellectual property of the smartphone in question must be owned by an Indian company, and the brand itself must be Indian,” he added.
“There are four broad price categories of the market, and the brands applying for the scheme are evaluating which would be ideal for them to enter. For now, they have expressed intent in investing in the highest-volume segment,” he added.
Considering all factors, a new phone brand under the aegis of Meity’s new mobile manufacturing incentives “will enter the industry next year”, said the minister.
India’s smartphone industry is its largest contributor to a $100-billion domestic electronics and appliances market, excluding exports. Between 2013 and 2014, an influx of Chinese brands such as Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo and OnePlus saw homegrown brands Micromax, Lava and Karbonn lose their market share and practically exit the sector. Lava, to be sure, continues to operate, both in new devices and as a contractual manufacturer.
In the first half of 2026, China’s top brands accounted for nearly 68% of all smartphones sold in the country, with South Korea’s Samsung and US-based Apple having a cumulative 25% share, and the remaining 7% split among other brands.
[Continued on Page 13]
The MPMS, announced on 15 July, will offer the finalized brands 5% as cash incentives on net annual sales of devices, and an additional 3% of net sales for R&D. Phone manufacturers must be registered in India, have 51% domestic ownership and management control, and hold an Indian patent and trademark for the brand to qualify for the incentives.
The scheme will also continue to offer contractual manufacturers incentives for domestic assembly, but a larger share has been set aside for local component sourcing. Companies will be eligible for the incentives starting this fiscal year if they report an annual turnover of at least ₹5,000 crore.
Incentives range from 2.75% of a base quantum of sales (which is 15% more than net smartphone sales in the previous fiscal year), 5% on additional sales above the base revenue, and an additional 1.5% if the manufacturers source five types of components from within the country for at least 25% of their total volume of phones made.
An empowered committee chaired by MeitY’s secretary will be in charge of the scheme, including assessing which companies qualify for the manufacturing incentives and selecting India’s next phone brand.
Analysts, however, cautioned that the ceiling for entry into the country’s current phone market could be “too high”.
Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at independent market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) India, said India’s smartphone market is facing a double-digit decline, with annual shipments projected at around 130 million.
“This will be the worst year in a decade, and brands currently holding ground in the industry have entrenched themselves in the country by establishing deep-rooted distribution and marketing channels, as well as considerable user trust and recall. Breaking into this hierarchy in such a high-barrier, low-growth market could be very difficult for a new brand,” he warned.
Here is the complete reproduction of the article “Private sector growth may pick up in Aug: Flash PMI” from the August 22, 2026 edition of the Mint. It begins with the initial coverage on Page 1 and continues with the detailed breakdown on Page 13.
Private sector growth may pick up in Aug: Flash PMI
Export orders rose across the private sector in August
By Subhash Narayan
New Delhi
India’s private sector growth appears set to pick up moderately in August after slowing to a more than four-year low in July, according to preliminary data from the HSBC Flash India Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Friday.
The HSBC Flash India Composite PMI Output Index rose to 54.6 in August from July’s 52-month low of 54.3, signalling a modest improvement in private-sector activity, the survey compiled by S&P Global showed.
The flash reading pointed to a quicker upturn in services, while manufacturing growth remained subdued. The services index is estimated at 54.5 in August against 53.3 in July. However, the manufacturing PMI output index for the month is estimated to contract sharply from 56.4 in July to 54.9 in August. The reading, which is an advance estimate for the month based on 75-85% of the total monthly survey replies, still signalled likely second-weakest expansion since March 2022, with stronger services activity more than offsetting the weakest rise in manufacturing output in five years.
The flash survey indicated that new orders and output increased at a slightly faster pace in August, although growth remained subdued compared with the trend of recent years. Anecdotal evidence indicated that challenging market conditions, competitive pressures and lower customer requirements often stymied growth, according to the survey.
Export orders rose solidly across the private sector thus far in August, albeit with the rate of expansion easing across both manufacturing and services. Companies pointed to stronger orders from a diverse range of export markets including the US, Germany, China, Singapore and Japan.
“Overall private sector output growth was broadly steady, helped by stronger services activity,” said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC. “Manufacturing growth weakened further in August, marking the softest improvement in five years. Output and new orders still rose, but at a slower pace. Stock of finished goods remained high even though input buying slowed. Cost pressures eased, but firms raised selling prices faster, pointing to stronger passthrough.”
[Continued on Page 13]
A standout feature of the August flash data was a strong increase in employment. The rate of job creation accelerated to the joint-fastest since June 2025, alongside April 2026, as businesses commented on a need to hire workers to meet rising demand.
This upturn was centred on the service economy, whereas staffing levels in manufacturing decreased for the first time in two-and-a-half years. Hiring gains at service sector companies allowed them to continue clearing backlogs.
At the composite level, outstanding business decreased at the steepest rate in five years, albeit modestly overall. Input costs increased in August, with expenses often rising for key inputs such as electricity, raw materials (particularly steel), transport and technology, the survey said.
Following a period of heightened inflation, the latest rise in overall costs was the softest in seven months, it added. Charge inflation moved in the opposite direction in August, with both manufacturing and services recording faster increases in selling prices than in the previous survey period. The overall uplift was the strongest observed since April, with respondents often highlighting increased efforts to pass through costs to customers.
Business expectations for the coming year edged higher in August from July, reflecting hopes that market conditions would improve across both manufacturing and services.
Manufacturing-only flash data indicated greater purchasing activity in August, which broadly reflected an increase in total new order volumes. That said, the pace of expansion in input purchases was the slowest recorded in more than five years, which in turn contributed to softer rates of accumulation of both pre- and post-production inventories.
The HSBC Flash India PMI is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to about 400 manufacturers and 400 service providers.
How the US Open courts chaos
The season’s final Grand Slam is a disruptor, where old favourites, rising stars and boisterous crowds collide
By Deepti Patwardhan
If the switch from clay to grass during the summer is the starkest change in tennis conditions, the transformation then from Wimbledon’s manicured courts and genteel surroundings around the stadium to the US Open madhouse can be truly jarring.
Wimbledon hums with tradition, while the US Open drips with irreverence. All-white tennis outfits give way to in-trend colours and silhouettes. Strawberries and cream are replaced with the famous New York hot dogs. While Wimbledon’s show courts are famous for their pin-drop silence and strict adherence to tennis etiquette, US Open crowds are known to bring boom boxes to the stands.
The final Grand Slam of the season strips tennis of all its elite, private-club pretensions and turns it into a prize fight. The US Open venue, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, is quite literally situated in the middle of a public park—the Flushing-Meadows-Corona Park. In recent years, one of the most persistent complaints from the players was the everpresent smell of marijuana, which was legalised for recreational use in the city in 2021.
“Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room,” current French Open champion Alexander Zverev was quoted saying in 2023. “...The whole court smells like weed.”
“There’s a lot of noise this year,” France’s Adrian Mannarino complained last year. “I find it’s a bit of a circus on the court: people move between games, sometimes between points. We let everything happen a little too much. It’s still tennis, not football.”
Welcome to the chaos of the US Open. The latest edition of the hard-court major is set to begin on 30 August.
CHANGING GUARD
The mayhem, however, is not restricted to the stands. Over the last few years, it has proved to be the most unpredictable Grand Slam event. Since Roger Federer’s streak of five straight championships from 2004-08, not a single men’s player has been able to defend the title. In the women’s field, no one managed to defend the title from 2014-24, before Aryna Sabalenka snapped that run by winning her second straight US Open last year.
It comes at the back end of the tiring tennis season, and the third major in as many months. After spending the summer in Europe, players haul their battered and bruised bodies across the Atlantic for one final shot at glory in the Grand Slam season. The heat and humidity on the eastern coast makes it worse.
This year, the injuries have indeed piled up ahead of the Open. Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz has been sidelined since April with a wrist injury and hasn’t confirmed his availability yet. It is difficult to predict what shape he will turn up in after months of absence from competitive tennis. His closest rival, and reigning World No.1 Jannik Sinner, hasn’t stepped on court since winning Wimbledon and pulled out of the Cincinnati Open, one of the tune-up events, due to a knee issue.
Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, is chasing the elusive 25th major title, weakened and winded. At 39, Djokovic hasn’t quite given up on the dream of becoming the most successful Grand Slam player in history—he’s currently tied at 24 for the alltime record with Margaret Court—but it... his build-up to the US Open has been far from ideal.
In the only tournament he played in the American hard-court season, in Cincinnati, Djokovic slipped to a three-set defeat to Thiago Agustin Tirante, ranked No.50 in the world, in the second round. More than the defeat itself, it was the manner in which the Serb faded physically that raised concern. He looked short of breath and wilted in the humidity.
With the cream of men’s elite struggling, the door may be left open for someone new to make their mark.
As it happened during the French Open, Alexander Zverev is the man most likely to fill that void. Winning the French Open, his first major after years of persistence, would have lifted his confidence. Zverev has remained in the top 5 of men’s tennis for the past few years because of his consistent, no-frills play. Moreover, his record against the current Big 3 may be suspect but he is very good at winning matches he is expected to.
Also contending for the title will be home favourites Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz, who have won a title each during the North American hard-court swing, and youngsters Rafael Jodar and Joao Fonseca. Jodar is one of the fastest rising names in the game while Fonseca’s pure stroke-making may reap rewards on the concrete courts. Having disrupted the draw in Paris, the duo is looking to set the stage alight in New York.
NEW WAVE
In the women’s draw, 2026 has already thrown a few curve balls. At this year’s French Open, 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva defeated qualifier Maja Chwalinska to win her first Grand Slam title. A month later, two unlikely finalists, Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova, battled for the Wimbledon title. Noskova, 21, held her nerve in her first major final to defeat her—
US Open may see a similar churn over the fortnight. On paper, though, two-time defending champion Sabalenka, Australian Open winner Elena Rybakina and sixtime Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek start as the favourites.
While Sabalenka hasn’t quite built the momentum going into the major, Swiatek seems to be getting back on to her feet again. The 25-year-old defeated Rybakina in straight sets at the Canadian Open to snap her 11-month title drought and win her first tour event of 2026. Rybakina, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on taking over as the World No.1 but will continue her quest at the Open.
The one player who has made waves during the hard-court swing is Alexandra Eala of the Philippines. A graduate of the Rafael Nadal Academy, the 21-year-old is blazing a trail for her country. She captured the Washington Open, a WTA 500 event, earlier this month to become the first player from the Philippines to win a WTA Tour singles title and broke into the top 20. At Wimbledon this year, she dethroned Swiatek with a mix of her lefty whip, sliding serves and deceptive power.
“She is just not scared to go against the top players,” former US Open champion Andy Roddick said recently. “For some reason what she does with switching directions and accepting pace and pinning people in corners, she is a name nobody wants to see early in a draw.”
Competing in a sport dominated by Europeans and Americans, Eala brings a piece of her culture every time she steps out on court. Embroidered on her visor is this phrase: “kapag lumago, hindi na hihinto (once it grows, it cannot be stopped)”.
“It refers to a dream and an aspiration to become unstoppable,” Eala, a former junior US Open champion, explained to BBC. The US Open has often been the playground for the young and the ambitious. Could it add another chapter to that?
The final Grand Slam of the season, the US Open, drips with irreverence, strips tennis of all its elite, private-club pretensions and turns it into a prize fight.
MIXED DELIGHT
Serving as an appetiser to the main tournament is the mixed doubles event that kicks off on 24 August. Since last season, it has morphed into more of an exhibition, where popularity is more important than doubles ranking or prowess.
This year, World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic will team up for the first time and headline a star-studded field that also includes Iga Swiatek and Alexander Zverev. Here are some of the big teams to watch for:
- Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic
- Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz
- Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud
- Alexandra Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime
- Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe
- Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev
- Svitolina and Gael Monfils
Here is the complete reproduction of the article “Govt tightens grip on fertility drugs” from Page 14 of the August 22, 2026 edition of the Mint:
Govt tightens grip on fertility drugs
CDSCO ordered states and UTs to stop the sale, manufacture and distribution of unapproved enclomiphenes
By Priyanka Sharma
New Delhi
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has directed all state and Union territory drug controllers to ensure that medicines containing enclomiphene and its combinations are not manufactured, sold or distributed, according to two government officials and a communication reviewed by Mint.
Enclomiphene is a nonsteroidal selective estrogen receptor modulator used to treat male infertility. However, enclomiphene and its combinations are not approved for manufacturing or marketing in India.
Under Indian laws, the manufacture, sale and distribution of prohibited, banned, and unapproved drugs is a punishable offence under Section 18 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
“It has been brought to the notice of this directorate that certain manufacturers are manufacturing and/or marketing drug products containing enclomiphene and combinations without obtaining the requisite permission from the Central Licensing Authority, despite such products falling within the definition of a 'New Drug’ under the provisions of New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019,” Raghuvanshi said in the communication.
State and Union territory drug controllers should trace manufacturers, marketers, distributors and retailers dealing in unapproved enclomiphene products, initiate regulatory action, and ensure these items are not manufactured or sold within their jurisdictions.
They must also submit an action-taken report detailing the identified manufacturers, regulatory steps initiated, and the compliance status to the central directorate. Copies of the order were sent to CDSCO zonal and sub-zonal offices and pharma associations.
Can cocktails work on a tasting menu?
Late nights get boozier as bars experiment with the multi-course format for drinks
By Reem Khokhar
Reem Khokhar is an independent journalist based in Delhi.
When I told my friend about the cocktail tasting I was going for that evening, she said, “240ml of alcohol? That sounds like a lot.” Her reaction made me hesitate, though only for a few seconds. My capacity for spirits has decreased considerably over time, now sated with a weekend drink or two, rarely exceeding 90ml. But I was intrigued when I heard about the nine-course cocktail menu at The Cavity, the nine-seater underground tasting room at Delhi’s Barbet and Pals. After all, how many drinks can one enjoy or distinguish in a single sitting with menus ranging from four to 12 courses?
Only a handful of bars in India offer cocktail tasting menus. They require skilled mixologists and considerable time and expense, from sourcing premium ingredients to painstaking processes such as dehydrating and fermenting. Keeping them intimate, usually between 4-10 guests, is less about exclusivity than acknowledging that this is a niche interest with limited demand.
While these experiences are not money-spinners, they provide mixologists creative fulfilment and flexibility. “Tasting menus allow bartenders to express themselves better,” says Arijit Bose, who offers 3-4-course menus for 4-10 people at The Bunker Room inside Una Hacienda in Bengaluru and Bar Outrigger in Goa. The main bar prioritises speed and efficiency, while tasting sessions allow guests to discover new flavours and interact with bartenders, adds Bose.
“Cocktails at the main bar are made for the mass palate,” says Karl Fernandes, operator consultant at Chennai’s Roc-A-Coe, which recently introduced a cocktail tasting menu on weeknights. “They require the least amount of interaction and explanation.” Their “Flip Switch” four-course menu is built around miracle berries, which contain miraculin, a protein that temporarily alters the perception of sour and bitter tastes, making them seem sweet. “A tasting menu makes sense to build loyalty and regularity with the consumer, who is aware of wider flavours through travel and social media.”
To keep the experience comfortable, tasting menus generally cap alcohol at 100-250ml served over 1-3 hours. At The Cavity, the drinks are paced from 15-20 minutes over three hours.
Noida-based publishing professional Kkunal Guptaa, 33, has tried various cocktail tasting menus. “I like seeing the thought process behind each cocktail and how they build on each other.” But longer menus can sometimes tire the palate, he adds. “The pours are usually small, but after a few drinks, especially if they’re all very bold, you don’t appreciate each one as much because the flavours start blending together.”
My own senses were scrambled by the later courses at The Cavity. A mezcal and whisky cocktail laced with black cardamom from Sikkim, paired with nihari and bread, was decadent but overpowering. My capacity to appreciate the drinks peaked after 5-6 courses. Yet the experience stayed with me: the creativity, approachability, and chatting with and watching Barbet and Pals’ mixologist co-founders Jeet Rana and Chirag Pal shake, smoke, garnish and pour each cocktail with a flourish.
Rana accepts that guests may not recall, distinguish, or even like every item on a tasting menu. The goal, he says, is to create a memorable experience. Many people may also be drinking less. “But they are looking for more from what they drink: better quality, storytelling, interaction, and experience-led spaces.”
Here is the verbatim reproduction of the article “‘Joint Security Area’: Mining the gap” from the August 22, 2026, edition of the Mint.
(Note: The article ends mid-sentence in the source material).
‘Joint Security Area’: Mining the gap
Park Chan-wook’s breakthrough military drama bridges the divide between the two Koreas
By Uday Bhatia
No less than three films I’ve seen in the past year have reckoned with mines. The final passage of Óliver Laxe’s Sirāt (2025) is an unbearably tense sequence in a minefield that offers little except shattered nerves and a vague sense that life is terrible. In Anurag Singh’s Border 2 (2026), Sunny Deol’s Indian Army officer tussles with a Pakistani soldier while standing on a partly tripped mine. He slams the soldier down on it as he takes his boot off, is flung aside but miraculously survives, and taunts the onlooking Pakistani troops. Between daft heroism and cruel nihilism, both scenes felt frustrating.
In a film made 25 years before these, a soldier on another border trips a mine… and something beautiful happens. Out on night patrol, South Korean soldier Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-hun) stops to relieve himself. He finds himself face to face with a nervous North Korean soldier, Jung Woo-jin (Shin Ha-kyun), and a calmer, older one, Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho). Worse, he partially trips a mine, and immediately freezes. Instead of leaving him there, the sergeant defuses the device and walks off, reprimanding his junior for having no intention of helping the man.
Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area (2000) is set in the tensely monitored part of the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea where soldiers of both nations are stationed. After two North Korean soldiers are shot dead here, a Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission investigative team, led by Sophie E. Jean (Lee Young-ae), is called in. Soo-hyeok confesses to the killings; we’re also shown this in flashbacks from different perspectives. But the more Sophie probes, the less things add up.
As Sophie initially interviews soldiers on both sides—Soo-hyeok, his fellow soldier Nam Sung-sik (Kim Tae-woo) and Kyeong-pil—we have no inkling they know each other. In fact, until the scene with the mine, one of the film’s many flashbacks, Joint Security Area feels like a fairly conventional military drama. This changes after Kyeong-pil’s act of humanity, which moves Soo-hyeok so much he relays his thanks in a letter that he hurls over to the North Korean side. Kyeong-pil replies with his own missile. Soon, they’re forbidden pen pals. One night, Soo-hyeok turns up at their outpost, surprising Kyeong-pil and Woo-jin. They get along even better in person. Soo-hyeok brings Sung-sik on his sorties. The four men meet in the dead of night, smoke, listen to music, play games and eat American chocolates brought over by the South Koreans.
Those who associate Park Chan-wook with his more transgressive films might be surprised by the easy warmth of these scenes. This was his third film, though he prefers to call it his first, disavowing his first two features, neither of which was a hit with audiences or critics. Joint Security Area, though, was a huge success, becoming, for a brief time, the highest-grossing Korean film. It set Park on a path to becoming one of the signature directors of the new millennium. He’d reunite memorably with each of the three stars: Song Kang-ho in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Thirst (2009), Lee Young-ae in Lady Vengeance (2005), and Lee Byung-hun in a tour de force comic performance in his most recent film, No Other Choice (2025). Just as importantly, it marked the beginning of his still-ongoing partnership with Jo Yeong-wook, one of the greatest director-composer pairs ever.
Joint Security Area doesn’t quite have the tart silkiness we’ve come to associate with Park. It’s a little rough around the edges. Some of the writing, especially the bits in English, is too blunt, and the performances by the Swiss investigators and Lee Young-ae aren’t on the level of the actors playing the soldiers. But it’s clearly the work of a director set to go far. Almost every scene has some satisfying filmmaking choice—a match cut, an unusual framing. There’s the first great Park scene transition: a top-down shot of a canopy replaced by a similarly shaped black umbrella. There’s the feeling of cinema as sleight-of-hand, revelations that change the complexion of what has come before. And though Park’s tendency towards formal preciseness is in evidence, you also sense a young director eager to break rules. A suicide is conveyed in a succession of quick, jarring shots that don’t fit together logically, but instead capture the emotional dislocation of the moment.
Anyone who’s been watching Hindi cinema closely over the last two decades should find Park’s subversion of political taboos fascinating. In the years since the film released, he’s talked about how he feared he might be arrested under the National Security Act, which in those days was invoked to limit favourable depictions of North Korea. Yet, Joint Security Area isn’t the least bit tentative in its pacifism, arguing wittily and emotionally for the humanity of both sides (and taking several swipes at America’s role in the conflict).
In 2013, there was a Hindi film called War Chhod Na Yaar, about a friendship between an Indian and a Pakistani officer on either side of the Line of Control. There’s enough to suggest the Korean film might be an inspiration—it too has a visiting fact-finder, a reporter played by Soha Ali Khan. Its unthreatening politics can be gauged from its cajoling title, yet even this simple plea would be impossible to get into theatres today. Ikkis (2026), a film that dared to show a friendship between Indian and Pakistani officers, had a disclaimer tacked on that read: “our neighbouring country is not trustworthy at all”.
Joint Security Area is haunted by death and history, but there’s an optimism and lightness to it that shines through, down to the beautiful last shot. When Soo-hyeok first visits the North Koreans, Woo-jin, overcome by the gesture, stammers: “You’ve done a great thing. After half a century of division, you have breached our tragic history of agony and disgrace, broken the dam to reunify our country.”
Cyclicals buck weak market as FPI inflows hit 23-month high
Quiet week — The Sensex was down 0.6%, while the Nifty declined 0.5%.
By Mayur Bhalerao
Mumbai
Indian equities ended the week lower, as losses in information technology (IT), telecommunications, and consumer stocks outweighed gains in realty, metals, and private banks. Elevated crude and volatile global bond markets kept investors cautious even as foreign investors returned in force.
Indian equities ended little changed on Friday, with the Sensex closing flat at 77,540.83 and the Nifty 50 edging just 0.08% higher to 24,252. For the week, the Sensex fell 0.6%, while the Nifty declined 0.5%.
Real estate stocks emerged as the strongest pocket. The BSE Realty Index gained 1.58% during the week, while the BSE Private Banks and the BSE Metal advanced 0.65% and 0.60%, respectively.
In contrast, the BSE IT Index fell 2.61%, making it the worst-performing sectoral gauge. The BSE Telecommunication declined 1.97%, while the BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods lost 1.71%.
“Domestic cyclicals should hold ground next week. Realty and private banks are riding rate-cut expectations and steady credit growth, while metals are benefiting from tight global supply. IT and FMCG could see a valuation-led bounce, but a durable rebound needs clearer signs of US demand and rural consumption,” said Rajesh Singla, chief executive and fund manager at Alpha AMC.
Santosh Meena, head of research at Swastika Investmart Ltd, expects commodity-linked stocks to remain in focus, aided by a weaker dollar and firm global commodity prices. “Metals, realty and rate-sensitive financials appear better placed to retain momentum. Easing US bond yields could also benefit PSU (public sector undertaking) banks, real estate, and select automobile stocks. FMCG may remain under pressure from elevated input and logistics costs, while a broad IT rebound looks unlikely unless global cues improve,” Meena said.
Global equities delivered mixed returns as rising bond yields, expensive crude and inflation concerns weighed on risk appetite. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index led major indices with a 3.6% gain. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite rose 1.9%, Thailand’s benchmark advanced 0.5%, and Brazil’s Bovespa and Malaysia’s benchmark added about 0.6% each.
India’s Nifty 50 declined 0.5%, but outperformed several technology-heavy Asian and European markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the biggest laggard, falling 3.9%. France’s CAC 40 declined 2.1%, Taiwan’s Taiex lost 1.3%, China’s CSI 300 fell 1%, and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.9%.
The benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.70%, keeping pressure on global risk assets.
Meena attributed India’s resilience partly to its substantial underperformance earlier in 2026, while markets that had led the global rally were more vulnerable to rising yields. “The sharp rise in US bond yields has hurt growth-oriented markets more than India. However, crude moving above $90 per barrel remains a key domestic headwind. Uncertainty around the US-Iran war could keep oil elevated, while rising commodity prices are adding to inflation risks. Bond markets are also not yet providing a comforting signal for global equities,” he said.
Strong foreign capital flows helped cushion domestic equities. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) invested a net ₹23,544 crore up to 21 August, showed NSDL data. It surpassed February’s ₹22,615 crore, marking the highest monthly inflow of 2026 and the largest since September 2024, when FPIs poured in ₹57,724 crore.
Charts & Data (Pulse of the Street)
Weekly returns ended 21 August 2026.
BSE Sectoral Indices Weekly Returns (%)
- Realty: +1.58%
- Metal: +0.60%
- Bankex: +0.15%
- FMCG: -1.71%
- Telecommunication: -1.97%
- Information Technology: -2.61%
Global Indices Weekly Returns (%)
- Hang Seng (Hong Kong): +3.56%
- Jakarta Comp (Indonesia): +1.93%
- Ibovespa (Brazil): +0.59%
- FTSE 100 (UK): +0.01%
- Nifty 50 (India): -0.47%
- Kospi (South Korea): -0.92%
- CSI 300 (China): -0.99%
- Taiex (Taiwan): -1.26%
- Dax (Germany): -1.55%
- S&P 500 (US): -1.82%
- Cac 40 (France): -2.08%
- Nikkei 225 (Japan): -3.93%
Saint-Gobain wants India to shift from bricks to drywalls
Gypsum-board drywalls are 90% lighter and offer far better thermal insulation than bricks
By Nehal Chaliawala
nehal.chaliawala@livemint.com
Mumbai
French glass and building materials maker Saint-Gobain has a new mission. Its India chief executive officer Sreedhar N wants to change how people in the country build their homes and offices, making a shift away from traditional materials like brick and concrete towards gypsum boards.
The company, the market leader for gypsum boards in India, is investing in influencing how Indians think of buildings by working with architects and real estate developers. It is training construction workers to work with materials like gypsum board, glass wool, stone wool and glass that offer better sound and thermal insulation than brick walls.
The company has also stepped-up engagement with the Union government and state governments to promote building codes around insulation and material use. The campaign is the top agenda item for Sreedhar, who took the mantle of India chief at the company in April last year after serving as its global chief financial officer for over six years.
“Ever since I have landed here, I’m only doing this,” he said in an interview at the company’s office in Mumbai, referring to efforts to change the way Indians think about buildings.
The company is planning influencer campaigns to promote consumer adoption of newer construction techniques that are more expensive but can offer greater cost savings over the years, Sreedhar claimed.
The strategy is not new. Asian Paints is also diversifying from paints to segments such as waterproofing, decorative lighting and fenestration—the arrangement of windows and doors in buildings—to grab a larger share of home improvement budgets.
However, instead of diversifying into other product categories that customers are already buying, Saint-Gobain is looking to change customer habits and push them to newer materials altogether.
Gypsum boards and insulation wool to make dry walls is a concept widely adopted in the west. Dry walls are said to be 90% lighter than brick walls and offer five times better thermal insulation, saving construction and cooling costs for buildings.
Besides these, the company is pushing for greater adoption of glass that can offer better sound and thermal insulation and construction chemicals that are better for waterproofing than conventional methods.
Saint-Gobain is big in the float glass segment but focuses on the premium end of the market. The company is relatively small in the construction chemicals industry, which it has only recently entered.
Over the past year, Saint-Gobain has signed a memorandum of understanding with the CEPT University in Ahmedabad to influence upcoming architects about the use of newer construction materials.
It has engaged with 20 leading real estate developers including Oberoi Realty and K Raheja Corps to promote its materials. It is also exploring investment in trade schools to teach workers how to handle these materials.
So, why would the first non-French, global CFO of a 350-year-old multinational company move to lead a smaller market that brings less than a tenth of its revenue? Definitely not to lead the company to a domestic capital markets listing, Sreedhar asserted.
“To make it a listed company, the kind of hassles you will go through will be phenomenal. And you can do that if the company needs money. You see the cash generation after I took over as a group CFO. Today, we have less than half of the leverage and the debt that we had and our cash generation has gone three times more,” he said.
The transfer was Sreedhar’s choice because there is more to achieve in his home country.
“If I was driven by the number, title and the power, then I should have continued as a global CFO because my CEO was not very keen that I go back. I've come back with the purpose because genuinely, I think there's so much to achieve,” he said. “Fifty per cent of the world's population is in my region. So, from a potential point of view, for the coming decade, nowhere in the world can compete with Asia Pacific.”
Walls of Change
- It has engaged 20 top developers like Oberoi Realty and K Raheja Corp to promote products.
- Saint-Gobain is also pushing for stronger building codes on insulation and materials.
- The company has partnered with CEPT University to train next-gen architects in newer materials.
- It plans investments in trade schools to train workers in handling gypsum boards, insulation.
The tragedy of Section 377 through a teen’s eye
Arathi Menon’s novel explores queer lives through a narrator who stands on the fringes of adult society
By Somak Ghoshal
somak.ghoshal@partner.livemint.com
Arathi Menon’s novel Da is book-ended by two years that had a profound impact on personal freedoms in India. The story begins in 2013, when the protagonist, Ved, is 13 years old, and the Supreme Court has just set aside a landmark judgement, passed by the Delhi high court in 2009, in order to reinstate the draconian Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which had criminalised consensual same-sex relationships for over 150 years. By the end of the book, in 2018, another bench of the same court overturns the earlier ruling by reading down the antiquated law, giving hope to the queer community and promising protection from persecution.
Between these two momentous events, the half-light of the child’s awareness feels much more affecting than the reality of the situation. Ved’s unique perspective isn’t just a literary device; it also acts as a conduit for feelings repressed by the inner.... With his mother dead and father unknown, he is left to the care of his Da, who looks after him like a son but can never escape the censure of society. Less evident is Da’s own predicament, the loneliness that Ved glimpses in him but cannot fathom, and having to constantly defend his right to parenthood. Even though his sister assigned him guardianship of Ved, Da has to engage in bitter fights with the extended family to ensure that the boy isn’t taken away from him. The anti-gay laws of the time make his position only more precarious and vulnerable.
There are aspects of Da’s life that the... [text missing/truncated] ...about his sexuality. Questions about his Mama, who died while giving birth to him, keep gnawing at his fragile mind, riddling him with guilt and remorse. Soon, Ved falls in love with Siya at a school dance, loses his virginity to her, and discovers that unlike his Da, his adoptive father who is really his uncle, he is not gay. If the certainty of this knowledge brings some peace to his restless mind, Ved does not get a shot at enjoying a carefree adolescence. Instead, an orphan brought up by his adoring Da, he ends up losing the people he loves the most through a series of unfortunate events, some inadvertently provoked by him.
The power of Menon’s novel comes from her decision to narrate her story through Ved’s voice. In order to inhabit his consciousness, she must not only speak and think like a teenager, but also imbibe an innocence that is difficult for the cynical adult mind to summon up. Crossing the barriers of age and gender, Menon achieves her goal with remarkable empathy and economy. She does not overdo the Gen Z slang or pop culture references, but strews enough of both into her prose to bring Ved’s world alive.
Da stands out in the landscape of LGBTQ+ fiction in India for its unique decision to explore the social and emotional consequences of queerphobia through the eyes of a narrator who stands on the fringes, his mind untainted by value judgements, imposed by either law or society. By decentring the attention of the reader from the legality for queer rights to the tangible human costs of the absence of such rights, Menon cuts to the core of the problem. ... morality cuts across social divisions, but assumes a terrifyingly rabid form when borne out of middle-class hypocrisy.
The poignancy of Da also comes from the sheer ordinariness of family life that unfolds around Da, Ved and for a while, Vamsi, who becomes a quasi-parent to the boy as his Da’s boyfriend. The everyday rhythms of cooking, cleaning and watching TV, the squabbles between couples, the Freudian accident of catching two parental figures in flagrante delicto, the small joys and sorrows of school life and its petty politics—everything comes together beautifully to ground Menon’s novel in an intensely relatable framework of living as a human being in the world. It isn’t that the horrific violence that Da and Ved endure during the dark days of 2013 has been mitigated by a change in the law. In spite of the novel ending with the welcome ruling of 2018, there is no assurance that life will be safer, better or happier for people like Da in the future. It does, however, restore dignity to the sur... [text truncated].
Da: By Arathi Menon, Pan Macmillan, 192 pages, ₹399.
Here is the complete reproduction of the cover story “Goa’s Got a Game Plan” from the August 22, 2026, edition of Mint Lounge.
Due to the multi-column layout of the original print pages, a few lines in the source material end mid-sentence; these are preserved below exactly as they appear in the records.
GOA’S GOT A GAME PLAN
Goa is promoting sports and hosting events across disciplines to bring in more revenue, more tourists
By Arun Janardhan
“Bhajji paaji, zara mud ke dekh lo. Badi door se aayein hain (Bhajji, please turn around and look at us. We have come from far).”
Harbhajan Singh, the off-spinner who once played for the Indian cricket team and now occasionally turns his arm over for veterans’ sides, spins around for a quick wave. The group of six men, their wish fulfilled, return to their seats at the 1919 Sportz Cricket Stadium in Verna, Goa, to resume watching Delhi Warriors play Maharashtra Tycoons in the World Legends Pro T20 League on a warm January afternoon.
The stadium in Verna, a village known best for its industrial estate, is roughly 30km south of the capital Panjim. It involves a longish drive off the four-lane main road, through a dust path with a sprinkling of human presence before the stadium emerges, in the middle of nowhere. One stand is named after India’s former T20 International (T20I) captain Suryakumar Yadav, who was at the stadium’s inauguration last year.
The World Legends Pro T20 League is just one of several domestic and international sports events hosted in Goa in recent times. Since 2019, when Ironman 70.3 Goa held its first edition of the triathlon in the state, there has been a steady increase in numbers of different sports.
Among them were the National Games, which had over 40 disciplines across 28 venues, and a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge in 2023, last year’s chess World Cup, two editions of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender, the latest edition of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), two seasons of the Goa 7s rugby, the Indian Racing League in March besides the Legends T20.
Add to that the fifth Asia Cup Bridge in June and the Goa Bridge Festival in July—bridge was after all a medal sport in the 2018 Asian Games—which completes a roster of indoor and outdoor sporting events held in the region.
Venues for these competitions are spread across India’s smallest state—in the capital Panjim, nearby Taleigao, the more touristy Arpora, in Mapusa, Verna and near the Manohar International (Mopa) airport, among others. Several of these events are held in partnership with the Goa ministry of tourism, which has been proactive in promoting Goa as a sports destination. The state department is interested in building the requisite infrastructure, in easing the pathway to organising contests and keen to attract sport-loving tourists.
According to Rohan Khaunte, the minister for tourism, information technology, electronics and communications, printing and stationery, the expectation of a tourist coming to Goa has changed since the pandemic. “He doesn’t want to come to one location and do only one thing. At the same time, from the government’s point of view, we have to start opening new verticals to attract tourists in different forms.”
The post-pandemic shift in Goa is apparent in the “more”—there are more restaurants and cafes, more housing projects, more highways and arterial roads, more immigrants and tourists. The visitors’ demographic has changed too—as per the tourism ministry’s data from last year, while the number of foreign visitors to the state has declined from 890,459 in 2017 to 517,802 last year, the corresponding number for domestic visitors has shot up from 6,895,234 to 10,284,608.
The government’s intention is to make Goa more attractive to event organisers—to bring in sportspeople, support staff and fans who add to the tourism revenue. It’s also to provide tourists with more options—besides the casinos, parties and beaches—so they can add on a day at the stadium to a few days of holidaying.
Therefore, to add to the “mores”, there are more stadiums, grounds and facilities for play as well.
“We have started this narrative of Goa beyond beaches,” Khaunte adds. “You may come for the sun, sand, sea, you may come for the parties, but you could also visit churches, temples… There is much more to the state of Goa beyond the beaches.”
BEACHES TO POLE POSITION
North Goa’s (relatively) newly-built airport, known commonly by the village Mopa in Pernem where it is located, came up on a hillock that was shorn off vegetation for the purpose. While landing in Mopa from Mumbai, a gorgeous carpet of hills and valleys in green give way quite suddenly to the bald, brown head of the hilltop as the aircraft descends.
In February, the roads leading up to the airport, a relatively empty three-four lane speedway, lent themselves to the Goa Street Race of the Indian (motor) Racing Festival (IRF). Initially scheduled to be held in Vasco, the location was moved after the locals there protested the building of a new track.
The IRF has six city-based teams that form the Indian Racing League (IRL) and two additional teams in the Formula 4 Indian Championships (F4IC). The former is a four-wheel, single-seater and gender-neutral racing league, which ran its Round 4 on a 12-turn 2.064km circuit in Mopa.
On the day of the races, the route leading up to the viewers’ gallery looked like a bomb site, with mountains of rubble and a thick cloud of red dirt rising every time the wind blew. A long walk, seeming longer for those unaccustomed to Goa’s chronically humid weather, led to the visitors’ lounge where a bunch of people gathered to watch cars zip past as each lap takes less than a minute. On television screens in the arena, the IRL’s “celebrity” owners, like actors Arjun Kapoor and Kichcha Sudeep, talked about how wonderful it was to be in Goa.
Ticket prices started upwards of ₹499 but the galleries were busy, occupied largely by crew, media, support staff, etc. This was the IRL’s first time in the state, having previously conducted races in Chennai, Coimbatore and Hyderabad, but its organisers are already hoping for a second one in October 2026.
In another slightly similar case, the seventh edition of UTT was played in the coastal state for the first time in July, after being staged previously in Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and most recently in Ahmedabad. The UTT, with seven-eight city-based teams made up of Indian and foreign players, followed the example, perhaps, of the WTT Star Contender, which had its first two Indian editions in Goa.
To grow the sport, one of the events it created was the WTT Star Contender. Indian startup Stupa Sports Analytics, which had already started working with the ITTF as a provider of real-time data and analytics, decided to bring one of these Star Contenders to India, a big, promising market for the sport’s governing body.
“When we bring in international athletes to India, how do we create a great experience?” was one of the considerations for Megha Gambhir, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Stupa. “How do we present a good image of India and get them (players) to return (for subsequent editions)? How do you make it a sports-tourism kind of thing?”
They zeroed in on Goa, which answered all these questions, so “people could have the experience they like,” she says over the phone. “The first impression should be, like, wow.”
The WTT Star Contender had two editions in Goa, at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Taleigao in 2023 and then at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Mapusa the following year (the last two editions have been held in Chennai). Several leading Indian players participated, besides former world No.1 Fan Zhendong, then No.6 Hugo Calderano, among others.
While the event didn’t fill either stadium, Gambhir says it fulfilled their objective, of exposure to Indian players—and the foreign competitors liked the experience we wanted to create. That’s why we wanted to do more editions.
SEA, SPORT AND STADIUMS
At the newly opened Porvorim Gymkhana, just off the National Highway NH 66 that connects Mumbai to southern India, an Olympic size 50m swimming pool is only one of three pools. Another one is dedicated to diving, the third for the recreational swimmer, but the 50m pool comes with attached starting blocks meant for competitors.
Inside, three badminton courts, four units for table tennis, two snooker tables, two glass-walled squash courts with a small viewing deck and an indoor room for chess, carrom clearly spell out the gymkhana’s ambitions: to hold competitive events. Outdoor pickleball courts are still under construction at the gymkhana—which took over a decade to complete—spread over 20,300 square metres.
The state already has a lot of infrastructure for sport, Khaunte elaborates, like the stadiums built during the Lusophonia Games (a multi-nation, multi-sport event like the Commonwealth Games but for former Portuguese colonies) in 2014, and improvised for the National Games in 2023.
“The infrastructure is already available most of the time—it needs to be tuned in as per the event requirement. The beach allows you to curate a lot of stuff too,” adds Khaunte, who is also the Porvorim...
Goa in 2019. When Raj was looking for a venue that checked all the boxes needed for the event—a 1.9km swim (held at Miramar beach), a 91.8km bike ride (which runs from Panjim to the Zuari bridge) and a 21.3km run (back to Miramar)—Goa became an obvious choice.
It was a “marketable venue”, came with government’s support and had a sellable “tourism angle”. “It’s a destination sport and we chose a destination-worthy place,” he says. The event has had five editions so far, missing out two years due to the pandemic.
Others like Mahesh Bhupathi, the chief executive officer of SG Sports-Media-Entertainment (SGSE) that promotes the World Legends Pro T20, wanted to take their league to a place that does not get “world-class cricket” (the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda held eight one-day internationals between 1989-2010 but none since). He hoped to create a festival-like atmosphere, so that people would travel to watch former masters of the game, several of them still bigger names than current cricketers, like Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Dale Steyn, as was evident on that January afternoon.
A few people hung around outside the gates of the 1919 Sportz Stadium, standing on their toes occasionally to get a better view of the action. Two men sat by the gate, selling merchandise—T-shirts mostly. Inside, the Suryakumar Yadav Stand had a...
When SGSE was working on the concept, they didn’t have a venue in mind before Bhupathi was introduced to Kamala Prasad Yadav, the founder and chairman of real estate firm Venture Building Dreams and the brains behind the 1919 Sportz Stadium. Yadav, also the sarpanch of Chicalim village (which is about 20km west of the stadium near the older Dabolim airport) panchayat, had bought the land in Verna in 2021 and turned it into a stadium so his children, both promising cricketers, could train with ease.
With nine pitches, floodlights for night-time matches and an initial seating capacity for 5,000, Yadav intends to expand the capacity to 25,000, which will allow the venue to possibly host international matches, besides adding an academy and a 120-room hotel through a joint-venture. He says that given the limited infrastructure in the state, he felt something needed to be done for all aspiring cricketers.
“This will definitely help Goa cricket,” says Yadav, who speaks in a careful, measured manner amid long pauses. “We didn’t have such a ground in Goa where young talent could practice and play matches. Goa’s traditional sport is football, but it is dying and cricket is overtaking it. You see more cricketers coming up than footballers.”
He adds that their bookings are adequately healthy, with some celebrity cricket, a tournament for doctors besides enquiries from Indian Street Premier League (ISPL), a two-year-old annual T10 (10-overs-a-side) cricket league played with a tennis ball. The Delhi Capitals’ cricket team practised for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) at this venue earlier this year.
“When I was introduced to the owner,” says the former tennis Grand Slam doubles champion Bhupathi, “I found him to be passionate about cricket. The stadium (which overlooks a set of hills) itself had an English county feel. He (Yadav) invested in the floodlights and was happy to partner with us.”
RUN-RATE FOR REVENUE
World Pro Beach Volleyball followed in South Goa, then the WTT Star Contender among others. The IRL street races were held in partnership with the Entertainment Society of Goa, which comes under the tourism ministry, while the ministry was also one of the sponsors for the World Legends Pro T20.
Tourism generates close to 17% of the state GDP, contributing to 40-45% of direct and indirect employment. The narrative of “Goa beyond beaches” will attempt to bolster these figures even as foreign tourists, whose focus is on the increasingly more crowded beaches, dwindle and Indian visitors—who have a bigger list of things to do on a holiday—grow in numbers.
This beyond-beaches focus includes wellness, Ayurveda (Dhargalim village near Mopa has the nearly four-year-old All India Institute of Ayurveda), adventure, culinary experiences, heritage tours, among others. “We realised sport has become one of the two economies which is moving fast, keeping in mind Gen Z and the Gen Alpha,” adds Khaunte, seated in his department of tourism office in Patto, Panjim.
“The second is the concert economy.” Any large sporting event would bring in teams, participants, support staff, event organisers besides fans and media. Local restaurants—from the once humble beach shacks to more sophisticated boutique establishments—hotels and casinos will get higher footfalls while car rentals and cabs cash in too as GST revenues go up for the exchequer.
For instance, the National Finals of the Dream Sports Championship Football (under-16 age category) 2025 in May this year had eight boys’ and eight girls’ teams battling for the titles over the course of over a week at the SAG Benaulim Football Ground, Utorda Sports Complex and Raia Football Ground. That’s at least 500 people—not including spectators—for over a week, which is an estimated 3,000-4,000 room nights, a healthy inventory for the state from a small-scale sporting event.
“The beauty of motorsport,” says Akhilesh Reddy, chairman and managing director of Racing Promotions Pvt. Ltd (RPPL), promoters of IRF, “is that when motorsport grows, it grows employment, it grows industrialisation and proportionately, it grows the GDP.”
Seated at the gallery for viewers on race day, against the occasional roar of passing cars with his cellphone buzzing non-stop on silent mode, Reddy just about makes time for a quick chat amid a mounting list of to-dos. He takes the example of Sunburn, the 20-year-old annual electronic music festival, which had a deep, enduring impact on music and tourism in Goa before it moved to Pune.
“Lots of people come here and if something happens in Goa, it gets acknowledged,” he says, as a way of pointing out why this state generates media attention.
CHALLENGES REMAIN
For Nihal Sarin, understandably, the location or venue of an event makes no difference.
The chess grandmaster, now ranked in the world’s top 25, says the venue is immaterial to him but admits that it might be different for different people. Before the chess World Cup last year, Sarin said in September, “I stay neutral, try to play the best chess I can. Wherever I am.”
Goa might seem like an odd choice for a chess event, given that it does not have any strong connections to the sport unlike a Chennai or a Mumbai and is played indoors, with players hunched over a board for hours. But when the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was considering a venue for its World Cup to be held in November of 2025, Goa emerged as a strong contender because the state government and the All India Chess Federation (AICF) provided strong guarantees on funding, security and logistics.
“Goa is actively positioning itself as a sports tourism hub, (with) good air links and enough hotel capacity to handle more than 200 players and delegations from around the world,” a FIDE spokesperson wrote in an emailed response.
Unlike Sarin, location makes a difference to players travelling from abroad, their support staff and administrators. Even if chess is mostly played indoors, the host location matters because of climate, time zone, travel distances, connectivity, food, many English speaking residents, Goa becomes an appealing choice of destination.
Getting athletes to Goa might be easier, but building fandom does not have a defined formula. Even the biggest cities, like Mumbai and Bengaluru, with their well-established and long-standing sporting traditions, struggle to fill stadiums for anything other than T20 Internationals involving India. Filled stadiums are not just subject to ticket pricing but also to access, interest in the sport, visibility and habit. Even before the Indian Super League (ISPL) imploded this season, football observers noted that in football-loving Goa too, stadium numbers had been reducing over time.
Just a week before the start of the Goa Street Races, there were no hoardings up on the road leading to the airport or elsewhere in the neighbourhood. Reddy says their organisation did not have adequate time to prepare for the event and focused instead on getting the infrastructure in place. During the races, almost all the branding was on the “celebrity” owners of the teams, like actors John Abraham, Naga Chaitanya and former cricketer Sourav Ganguly.
“As we don’t have the racing culture, if I put the drivers’ photos and the drivers’ names, people really wouldn’t care about it because they don’t know who they are,” explains Reddy. “One of the drivers here (Neel Jani) has been a winner in the Le Mans (a 24-hour endurance race in France) but people wouldn’t know him.”
“For people who know the sport and for Europe, he’s a superstar. Over here, for us, the superstars are only the (film) heroes. I really hope at some point, people look forward to knowing who the drivers are, care about which team he/she is with.”
The challenge of filling stadiums—an important criterion for event organisers (besides television coverage)—goes beyond awareness and interest. It’s also about access—more challenging for visitors than for locals in Goa. Often spoken of as being equivalent to a city, Goa is a state, spread over approximately 3,700 sq. km with a population density of under 400 people per sq. km—compared to Mumbai, which is at 27,000.
Yadav admits that while Verna maybe centrally located—geographically, it’s roughly halfway between Goa’s northern and southern ends—it does not have public transport access. Personal vehicles, fairly common in Goa, are mandatory to get to places like Mopa, Arpora or 1919 Sportz though some others, like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Bambolim that recently hosted the UTT, have marginally better public transport access.
One of the organisers, who did not wish to be quoted, says that Goa’s hotels and eating out are expensive for younger, upcoming players. Being a small state, some event organisers have experienced difficulties in accessing material and labour.
Then there is the debate over whether Goa needs more tourists. The Times of India reported last September that the state with a population of just over one-and-a-half million people attracts six times that number in tourists. There are the obvious fallouts, the report adds, of congestion, inadequate management of garbage disposal, erratic availability of electricity and water besides stories of hostility towards tourists. Environmentalists warn of growth that could come at the detriment of the state’s natural green cover and space, which attracts tourists—and settlers—in the first place.
But despite the challenges and scepticism, sports tourism is on a rapid rise. Watching sport in Goa’s grounds and stadiums is a less suffocating experience than other big cities. Since its inception over a decade ago, the ISL has held football matches in Goa for the franchise of FC Goa. But football in the state is on the decline, as Khaunte also admits, leaving grounds with fewer users. As cricket’s popularity here increases, also because of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Goa government and tournament organisers believe there is space for other sporting disciplines to flourish.
“The whole idea is that you keep adding the ‘S’,” says Khaunte. “So, if it is sun, sand, sea, now add sports, spirituality and software to it.”
“Goa is a massive property for us,” adds Bhupathi. “We want to consolidate that because everyone wants to come here.”
SOME RECENT SPORTS EVENTS
(Roster of events hosted 2019 onwards)
- 2019 onwards — Ironman 70.3 (triathlon)
- 2023-24 — WTT Star Contender (table tennis)
- 2024 onwards — Goa Rugby 7s
- 2025 — World Cup chess
- 2026 — Indian Racing League (motor racing)
- 2026 — Ultimate Table Tennis
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