An Army Shooter Who Trained on a Borrowed Gun Just Broke an Asian Games Record by Four Targets

Neeru Dhanda hit 28 of her 30 targets in the Asian Games women’s trap final on September 29, breaking the event’s Asian record by four and becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual shotgun gold in the Games’ history.

From a borrowed gun to a record on the biggest stage

Dhanda, a Naib Subedar in the Indian Army, had already topped qualification with a score of 118 before the final at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery. Her 28 beat the previous Asian record of 24 by four clear targets, a gap that doesn’t happen often at this level.

She grew up practicing on a family double-barrel gun and, when that wasn’t available, a weapon borrowed from a cousin, firing at tin cans before she ever reached a proper range. That path eventually led to the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy and then the Army marksmanship unit that turned her into a 26-year-old Asian record holder.

The next day she won again. Paired with Kynan Chenai in the mixed team trap event, Dhanda helped break the existing Asian Games record of 30, held by Qatar, with a combined score of 34. She added a third medal, a silver in the women’s team trap alongside Aashima Ahlawat and Manisha Keer, finishing the Games with two golds and a silver in a discipline where India had never produced an individual woman champion before. At the closing ceremony on October 4, organizers named her India’s women’s flag-bearer.

Both kabaddi teams, same day, same opponent

India’s two kabaddi teams had the kind of day that’s become almost routine for the sport in this country. On September 26 in Nagoya, the women’s team beat Iran 37-34 in their final, and hours later the men’s team beat the same opponent 40-34 to retain their title.

Kabaddi captain Pawan Sehrawat had set the tone before the tournament even started. “You expect something from someone who deserves it, and you expect gold from kabaddi,” he said, reflecting the weight of expectation that follows the sport at every Asian Games since it was added to the program in 1990. India has now won the men’s gold in nearly every edition since, and by most counts this was the country’s ninth kabaddi gold medal at the Games across both categories.

What made the women’s win notable is that it came from a program still building the depth the men’s side has had for decades. Beating Iran, the same team that gave India’s men a competitive final, in their own final a few hours earlier, meant both halves of the country’s kabaddi setup delivered on the same day rather than one carrying the other.

Apple Pay finally arrives, a decade after it was promised

Apple Pay launched in India on September 30, with Axis Bank as the country’s first banking partner, nearly ten years after Apple first signaled it planned to bring the service to the country.

Customers with Axis Bank-issued Visa and Mastercard credit cards can now add them to Apple Wallet and pay with an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch at checkout, in apps, and online, without entering a PIN or OTP each time. Apple says the service is accepted at millions of merchants across India, including Blinkit, Croma, Ixigo, Reliance brands, Tata 1mg and Zomato, with support for Mac expected to follow. The service does not yet work with India’s homegrown RuPay network, only Visa and Mastercard, which is the clearest sign of how much negotiation with India’s banking and payments regulators it took to get even this far.

“India is home to a dynamic and digitally savvy population that continues to embrace a cashless future,” said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. Axis Bank’s MD and CEO, Amitabh Chaudhry, framed the partnership as a bet on where Indian payments are heading: “At Axis Bank, our aspiration is to remain at the forefront of this transformation by building payment experiences that are progressive, trusted and deeply relevant to our customers.” For a market Apple spent years treating as too complicated to crack, a single bank partnership and a credit-card-only rollout is a modest start, but it’s the start that finally happened.