Corporate Citizen claps for the new kingclaps for the new king on the ‘tennis’ court – Rohan Bopanna,on the ‘tennis’ court – Rohan Bopanna, who at age of 43 years, secured hiswho at age of 43 years, secured his first-ever men’s doubles Grand Slamfirst-ever men’s doubles Grand Slam title at the 2024 Australian Open.title at the 2024 Australian Open.
He won his first men's doubles Grand Slam, becoming the world No.1 in the category, a sig- nificant milestone in his 22 years of professional tennis career. Bopanna’s latest feat in the world tennis circuit has reinstated the belief that ‘age is a mere number’, as he becomes the oldest World No.1, and qualifies for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. Bopanna made headlines at the Rod Laver Arena, Australia on January 27, when he and Australian tennis ace Matthew Ebden (36 years), defeated the Italian duo Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in a powerful men’s doubles final. Both Bopanna and Ebden are now first and second respectively on the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) men's doubles rankings. They both have a total of 8450 official points each.
With the latest win, Bopanna clinches his second career Grand Slam, adding to his 2017 French Open mixed doubles win, partnering with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski. He had lost the doubles matches in the 2010 and 2023 US Open finals. He becomes the third Indian player in the open championships to have won a grand slam men’s doubles title, alongside Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
Bopanna has been lauded by celebrity tennis achievers and tennis enthusiasts for his grit and fitness in achieving his ‘numero uno’ position in an ever-evolving game of stamina—pounding the aces and combating the deuce. Tennis legend Vijay Amritraj, has attributed Bopanna’s win to his Kodava lineage which defines discipline, motivation, a strong drive, and immense family support. “What stands out about Rohan is the ability to stay with it when the chips are down. At 43, to be motivated and have the desire to work... because the matches are tough. But the good thing for Rohan is that he always had a good serve so there were numerous free points”, said Vijay Amritraj. Novak Djokovic, the World No. 1 (men’s singles) said, “It’s amazing to do it at such a young age.” As more congratulatory messages pour in for Bopanna, his age-defying feat has instilled faith amongst sportspersons and the hoi polloi, to ‘keep trying and achieving’, in an era of ageism shifts.
Corporate Citizen slaps incidences of faulty AI-generated public distribution data, denying individuals their rightful subsidies, or pension monies.
It was a faulty AI algorithm that denied food to thousands of poor in Telangana. While AI was deployed to sift out ineligible individuals from welfare schemes, it incorrectly weeded out legitimate individuals below the poverty line. One Bismillah Bee, could not claim access to Telangana’s food security schemes, as she was wrongly listed under individuals possessing a car when she did not own any. The 67-year-old widow and her 12 household members, residing in Hyderabad’s urban slum, have been in a hand-to-mouth existence since her rickshaw-puller husband’s demise two years ago. The Telangana government’s algorithmic system, which digitally profiles its 30+ million residents, identified Bee’s husband as a car owner in 2021. The listing deprived Bee of the subsidised food under the Indian government’s food security law. She ran from pillar to post especially during the Covid pandemic, at the peak of her husband’s cancer, but could not convince the authorities that she was indeed poor and did not own a car.
Bee’s right to subsidised food supply was dragged to the Supreme Court Of India. Before the anomaly, her family received 12 kilograms of rice at one rupee ($0.012) per kg as against the market price of about 40 rupees ($0.48). An investigation pointed out that the use of AI in welfare schemes had resulted in the wrongful removal of legitimate names, highlighting the need for greater accountability and transparency in deploying such algorithms. A similar anomaly triggered the 102-years old Dhuli Chand to lead his wedding procession in Rohtak, Haryana, in 2022, to prove that he was indeed alive, and claim back his pension benefits. The state’s newly built algorithmic system–the Family Identity Data Repository or the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) database, had wrongly marked Chand as “dead”. Worse still, the authorities had not changed his “dead” status even when he repeatedly met them in person. With the deeper advent of ChatGPT and other AI algorithms gaining ground, hopefully, no ‘Bee’ would be deprived or ‘Chand’ declared ‘dead’; the solution is in tech proficiency and not blind application.