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Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman talked about Indian chess grandmaster R.Praggnanandhaa in her speech while presenting the 2024 Interim Budget. Sitharaman presented the budget in Lok Sabha on Thursday, February 1, and in her speech, mentioned the progress of Indian chess players that they have made in the past few years. The Finance Minister talked about the progress of Indian athletes in several sporting disciplines in the past year in several marquee tournaments.
While talking about it, Sitharaman praised the Chennai-based grandmaster for his exploits in 2023. Further, Sitharaman mentioned India’s remarkable performance at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, the Republic of China. As per PIB, she said, “The country received its highest ever medal tally in Asian Games and Asian Para Games in 2023.”
Indian Finance Minister praises R. Praggnanandhaa in her Interim Budget 2024 speech
The Indian Finance Minister praised the 18-year-old grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa while referring to his achievements in 2023. Sitharaman was quoted by The Indian Express as saying, “The country is proud of youth scaling new heights in sports. Chess prodigy and our No. 1 ranked player R Praggnanandhaa put up a stiff fight against the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2023. Today, India has over 80 chess grandmasters compared to a little over 20 in 2010.”
Sitharaman referred to Praggnanandhaa’s terrific outing at the 2023 FIDE World Cup, where the Indian battled it out with World Champion Magnus Carlsen for the prestigious title. However, he ended up losing the final battle. Pragg has a standard rating of 2747 and is currently the number 1 junior chess player.
