India’s Sumit Nagal (AP/PTI)

Bengaluru: Sumit Nagal dropped his kit bag and stared at it for a moment before reaching for his rackets. He could barely look at the graphite sticks. A part of him wanted to obliterate them. The 28-year-old had just lost in straight sets to Frenchman Geoffrey Blancaneaux in the first round of an ATP Challenger in Lyon in early June. It was a defeat that stung — Nagal hadn’t dropped a set in four previous meetings with Blancaneaux.

Sensing the storm brewing inside India’s No.1, coach Sascha Nensel stepped in. He grabbed the bag and told Nagal to take a break, to simply get away from the tennis court. “Those back-to-back tournaments in Heilbronn and Lyon were bad,” Nagal says six months later, leaning forward in his seat at a luxury hotel in Bengaluru. “I was playing such bad tennis. I was missing, making a lot of errors. I’m hitting the ball, but I don’t know where it is going. It’s the worst place to be for a tennis player. Lyon was rock bottom.” From there, Nagal and Yash Pandey, friend and sports physiotherapist, drove nearly 370 km to the Swiss resort town of Interlaken. Over the next five days, the duo hiked through the Bernese Alps. They spoke occasionally, and slowly the weight Nagal had been carrying through the first half of 2025 began to lift. The slump had consequences. Nagal’s ranking fell out of the top 300 in the second half of last year, pushing him out of even the qualifying fields of Grand Slams. The slide felt steep because it came on the heels of his best season yet, when he had climbed to a career-high No.68. In a sport where the number beside a name becomes the player’s identity, the drop has meant that, for the first time in two years, Nagal, ranked No.277 this week, will miss the Australian Open from Jan 18. Instead, he will start his 2026 campaign next week in Bengaluru at an ATP 125 Challenger, where he’ll hope to kickstart his return to the top 100. “You are top 100, you don’t play well and in four months you are 180,” Nagal says. “Nobody likes to be 300 whatever. The tournaments are very different, prize money is different. The hardest part for me was that I wasn’t playing at the level I wanted to play. The mental part too is a challenge; you struggle with motivation.” A low-grade temperature early in 2025 disrupted Nagal’s schedule. It didn’t help either that he didn’t have much of a pre-season. “Going forward, I will do pre-seasons for four to six weeks, playing a maximum of one league, because that’s what works best for my body and my game,” he says. Some of the missteps, Nagal admits, came down to inexperience at that level. “This was the first time I was 68 in the world,” he says. “There were some matches when I was 80 or 90 that I could have done better in. It was a learning experience.” At 5 ft 11, Nagal relies heavily on his legs and all-round consistency. In hindsight, he feels he should have put the rackets away even for a week the moment mental focus began to slip. “I should have come home, for some love and ghar ka khana — mooli parathas, cheeni roti…” he says, laughing, his eyes lighting up.

Amid the New Year cheer, Amir Khan’s family has an additional reason to celebrate, as his daughter today marks 2 years of marital bliss with husband Nupur Shikhare. The special day certainly demanded a special post, and husband Nupur Shikhare made sure of it. Commemorating their second anniversary, Nupur Shikhare shared a 90s-style marriage video, which gained both love and laughter from his wife, Ira, and his followers on the gram.

Nupur Shikhare’s 90s-style adaptation of wedding pictures and special moments

Nupur shared a special video on their social media handle, which featured pictures from their wedding, as well as moments from their relationship. What made the video more special is that it has been curated in a 90s style. One can see their pictures revolving with vivid backgrounds. He also used Kumar Sanu’s famous 90s song ‘Ek Sanam Chahiye Aashiqui Ke Liye.’ Along with the same, Nupur wrote a beautiful message that read, “Happy 2nd Anniversary….Congratulations @khan.ira for successfully completing two years of being married to me, you are very brave…I love you #love #anniversary.”Check out the video here:

Ira Khan reciprocates the love

Reacting to the video, Ira Khan gave a playful reply. He hilariously commented, “It’s the easiest, most fun, and satisfying thing I’ve experienced. This video on the other hand…..” Below the same post, in another comment, Ira wrote, “love you @nupur.shikhare.” To this, the loving husband replied with red heart emoticons.However, if you feel the fun and the story end here; appartanly not. Ira also shared the same reel on her Instagram story and wrote, “This is what you get when you marry a 40 year old.”

In another story following it, Ira explained how the reel was funny. She confessed that many people of her generation and younger might not get it in the first go, but apparently, this is how wedding videos looked in the 90s. She was thus shown this clip with utter excitement, which initially she failed to understand.

NEW DELHI: In a major move to strengthen patient safety, India has, for the first time, brought blood components used in transfusions under uniform pharmacopoeial standards, tightening regulatory oversight of blood banks and transfusion services nationwide. The step is accompanied by stricter quality specifications for widely used medicines—from tuberculosis and diabetes drugs to cancer therapies—aimed at curbing risks from unsafe blood products and substandard medicines.Blood transfusion involves giving whole blood or specific blood components into a patient’s vein to replace blood lost due to injury, surgery or illness, and is essential for treating conditions such as severe anaemia, major surgery, trauma, cancer care, childbirth complications and inherited blood disorders.The measures were formalised with the release of Indian Pharmacopoeia 2026, India’s official book of drug standards, by Union health and family welfare and chemicals and fertilisers minister JP Nadda at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre on Friday.Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) standards are legally enforceable in India and accepted in courts, with regulators using them to ensure drug quality. The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, sets and regularly updates these standards under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945.Published by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission on behalf of the Ministry of health and family welfare, the Pharmacopoeia lays down authoritative and legally enforceable standards under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. These standards form the basis for licensing, inspection and distribution of medicines across the country.A major regulatory expansion in the 10th edition is the first-time inclusion of 20 monographs for blood components used in transfusion medicine, bringing blood banks and hospital transfusion services under clearer and more consistent oversight—an important safeguard for surgeries, trauma care and maternal health.The monographs cover standards for whole blood and blood components, including whole blood (standard and irradiated); a wide range of red cell products (packed, additive solution, leucodepleted, buffy coat removed, cryopreserved and washed RBCs); plasma components such as fresh frozen plasma (from whole blood and apheresis), cryoprecipitate and cryo-poor plasma; platelet products including PRP, pooled and random donor platelets, buffy coat and apheresis-derived platelets (including additive solution and double units); and granulocyte components obtained through apheresis or buffy coat pooling.The edition also tightens the country’s drug safety framework by adding 121 new drug standards, taking the total number of monographs to 3,340. Each monograph specifies how a medicine must be manufactured, tested, stored and labelled, strengthening regulators’ ability to act against sub-standard or unsafe products.A key public-interest gain is the expanded and sharper coverage of medicines used under national health programmes. Drugs for tuberculosis, diabetes and cancer—relied upon by millions for long-term treatment—will now be subject to more uniform quality checks, a critical safeguard for patients dependent on public healthcare systems.Officials said the revised standards will also strengthen safety surveillance. Highlighting the progress of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) under the IPC, Nadda said India—ranked 123rd globally during 2009–2014 in contributions to the World Health Organization’s pharmacovigilance database—has now climbed to 8th position worldwide in 2025, reflecting faster reporting of adverse drug reactions and stronger regulatory action.With public healthcare bearing the bulk of the country’s disease burden, Indian Pharmacopoeia 2026 is expected to directly strengthen blood safety, improve medicine quality and enhance patient protection across the healthcare system.

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Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has issued a warning: the future of artificial intelligence (AI) may not be in the cloud, which means that massive, energy-hungry data centres for which tech giants pouring billions of dollars may become irrelevant. He said that the AI power will be in users’ pockets with silicon that powers their devices, capable of running sophisticated LLMs.In an interview, Srinivas argued that the rise of high-performance, on-device AI is the biggest existential threat to the centralised infrastructure which is currently dominating the tech industry.“Well, the the biggest threat to a data centre is if the intelligence can be packed locally on a chip that’s running on the device and then there’s no need to inference all of it on like one centralized data center. It becomes more decentralized and even better if the models that are coming along with the chip are are things that adapt to you,” Srinivas said.“And by the way, you don’t even you may not even need that for adaptation to you. It could just be um data that lives on your computer or your device um that can be retrieved on the fly,” he added.

Perplextiy CEO explaines benefits of moving AI from cloud to machines

Srinivas postulated multiple benefits of moving AI from the cloud to the device. He said that the processing will happen instantly on the device, removing the delay of sending data to a remote server. Having AI on machine will ensure that personal data never leaves the user’s hardware. Thirdly, Srinivas compared local AI to having a “digital brain” that lives with the user, learning and evolving based on their specific habits.“That way you don’t have to repeat it. That’s your intelligence. You own it. It’s your brain. Then that really disrupts the whole data centre industry like it doesn’t make sense to spend all this money 500 billion 5 trillion whatever on building all the centralised data centres across the world that do a lot of the intelligence workloads for people. This is the question. This is whatever it’s a $10 trillion question, hundred trillion dollar question,” he explained.“That’s not yet happened. No one’s actually shipped a model that can be packaged on your computer, a very efficient chip locally and then it’s very intelligent enough that it can complete tasks reliably. That’s not yet happened. When that happens, I think it’s it’ll be very interesting,” the Perplexity CEO concluded.

Zimbabwe Cricket have announced their squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, marking the nation’s return to the global stage after missing the 2024 edition. Led by talismanic all-rounder Sikandar Raza, the squad blends experience and youth as Zimbabwe aim to re-establish themselves in elite T20 cricket.

Zimbabwe have been drawn into Group B alongside heavyweights Australia and Sri Lanka, as well as Ireland and Oman. All group matches will be played in Sri Lanka, with Zimbabwe opening their campaign against Oman on February 9, 2026.

T20 World Cup 2026: Blessing Muzarabani returns to lead Zimbabwe’s pace attack

A major boost for Zimbabwe comes with the return of fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani, who is set to spearhead the pace attack. Muzarabani missed the recent Pakistan tri-series due to a back injury, raising concerns over his availability for the World Cup.

Having recovered fully, the tall right-arm seamer is expected to play a pivotal role, especially on Sri Lankan surfaces that can offer bounce with the new ball. His presence adds much-needed firepower to a bowling unit that will be tested against some of the strongest batting line-ups in world cricket.

Graeme Cremer’s comeback after seven years

One of the most eye-catching selections is the return of former Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer, who has been recalled after a seven-year absence from international cricket. Cremer’s inclusion significantly strengthens the spin department and brings leadership experience to the squad.

Cremer will partner Wellington Masakadza, giving Zimbabwe a reliable spin combination suited to subcontinental conditions. The selectors appear to have placed strong emphasis on experience and control, particularly for matches in Sri Lanka where spin often plays a decisive role.

Balanced squad blends youth and experience

Zimbabwe’s squad reflects a careful balance between seasoned campaigners and emerging talent. Alongside captain Sikandar Raza, the batting unit features Brendan Taylor, whose experience at the international level remains invaluable, as well as dynamic options like Brian Bennett and Ryan Burl.

Also READ: South Africa announces a bold squad for T20 World Cup 2026, drops Tristan Stubbs and recalls Kagiso Rabada

The middle order is bolstered by the likes of Tony Munyonga and Dion Myers, while wicketkeeping duties are expected to be shared by Clive Madande and Tadiwanashe Marumani.

Zimbabwe squad for T20 World Cup 2026

Sikandar Raza (c), Brian Bennett, Ryan Burl, Graeme Cremer, Bradley Evans, Clive Madande, Tinotenda Maposa, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa, Blessing Muzarabani, Dion Myers, Richard Ngarava, Brendan Taylor

Also READ: India’s rising star Vaishnavi Sharma reveals her top 3 favourite male and female cricketers

Teenage opener Lhuan-dre Pretorius smashed an unbeaten 98 before Ottniel Baartman held his nerve in the final over as Paarl Royals edged MI Cape Town by one run in a gripping SA20 derby. Baartman’s late strikes and Sikandar Raza’s three-wicket burst proved decisive.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius ignited his SA20 Season 4 campaign with a superb unbeaten 98, guiding Paarl Royals to a dramatic one-run win over MI Cape Town in a pulsating Western Cape derby at Boland Park on Friday night.With 15 to defend in the final over, Royals seamer Ottniel Baartman found himself under severe pressure after Kagiso Rabada launched the third ball for a six over long-off. The momentum appeared to have shifted, but Baartman struck back immediately, having Rabada caught on the boundary with the very next delivery.

That left MI Cape Town needing six off the final ball. George Linde struck a length delivery sweetly over cover, only for the ball to drop inches short of the rope, triggering wild celebrations among the home supporters.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!After a quiet start to the season, Pretorius rediscovered his touch at his favourite venue. The teenage opener was back to his attacking best, striking 10 fours and two sixes during a commanding 65-ball innings. Although the Royals crowd urged him towards a maiden T20 hundred, Rabada’s final-ball dot denied him the milestone.

Ottniel Baartman of Paarl Royals celebrates getting the wicket of Rassie van der Dussen of MI Cape Town during Match 10 of the SA20 Season 4. (SA20)

MI Cape Town were under pressure from the outset as Pretorius and Asa Tribe dominated the powerplay. The opening pair added exactly 100 in 10.4 overs before captain Rashid Khan (2/31) dismissed Tribe for 51 off 34 balls.The visitors responded strongly with the bat, as Rassie van der Dussen and Ryan Rickelton (36) put on 77 for the first wicket in 7.5 overs. However, new Royals signing Sikandar Raza (3/27) turned the contest, removing Rickelton and Nicholas Pooran before cleaning up Tom Moores with his first delivery.

MI Cape Town captain Rashid Khan hits over the top for six during Match 10 of the Betway SA20 Season 4 between Paarl Royals (PR) and MI Cape Town (MICT). (SA20)

Baartman then delivered the decisive blow, claiming both Van der Dussen (59) and Jason Smith (1) within three balls to derail MI Cape Town’s chase and seal a memorable win for the Royals.Brief Scores Paarl Royals: 181 for 3 in 20 overs (Lhuan-dre Pretorius 98 not out, Asa Tribe 51; Rashid Khan 2/31)MI Cape Town: 180 for 8 in 20 overs (Rassie van der Dussen 59, Ryan Rickelton 36; Ottneil Baartman 4/51, Sikandar Raza 3/27)