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National

- Microsoft update flaw triggers worldwide chaos

- Accepting nomination, Trump lays out populist agenda

- Putting out to sea

- Prison set on fire as anti-quota protests in Bangladesh escalate

- ‘EPFO’s IT systems are dysfunctional, crash-prone’

- Situation in Bangladesh an ‘internal matter’, says MEA

- Police vs police

- Railways grants 42-day special casual leave for organ donors

- PM is ‘lying’ about 8 crore new jobs and rubbing salt into wounds of youth: Cong.

- Seeking help from Centre to evacuate students: Assam CM

- SC to hear plea to probe ‘quid pro quo’ via electoral bonds

- ‘Only Nirmala has to resign in connection with Valmiki scam’

- HC stays Khan’s move for V-C selection panel

- ED attaches properties belonging to M3M India

- Voters will deliver strong rebuke to BJP: Venugopal

- Glitch in software update may have triggered global Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage: experts

- UPSC lodges criminal case against Puja Khedkar for forgery

- Ex-Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra is new Ambassador to U.S.

- Fast filling up

- Karnataka HC issues notice to power supply companies on electrocution of elephants

- U.P. Deputy CM hits out at Akhilesh over his ‘monsoon offer’

- Naidu outlines his vision for ‘Viksit Andhra Pradesh-2047’

- Four-year-old child dies of suspected H1N1 in Kochi

- UPSC Chairperson Manoj Soni quits 5 years before completion of tenure

- CBI arrests first-year MBBS student from Ranchi in NEET case

- 14232

- Unacademy and The Hindu to host UPSC Summit 2024

- 3,000 Army troops, 500 special forces deployed in Jammu

- Rama’s first battle

- U.P. train accident: toll rises to four, number of injured at 31

- Interfaith couple get protection under UCC

- Congress is a political parasite, says BJP president

- Navy and Army chiefs receive Param Vishisht Seva Medals

Aroon Deep

NEW DELHI

Faulty update by CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity firm, causes outages for millions Digital systems in aviation, banking, hospitals, TV channels and telecommunications collapse Flights around the world and in India delayed for hours or cancelled; passengers stuck

In a freeze: Passengers wait at Mumbai airport terminal as services were hit on Friday. Emmanual Yogini EMMANUAL YOGINI

A faulty update knocked out several Windows computers and servers around the world on Friday, sending them through a boot loop featuring a so-called blue screen of death, disrupting aviation, banking, telecommunications, hospitals, TV channels and other companies around the world.

The update was part of the Falcon endpoint threat detection and response product developed by CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity firm.

Flights were briefly grounded in the United States, with airports reeling under a complete collapse of their digital systems around the world. In India, airlines started checking passengers in manually at airports serving Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai, among others, issuing handwritten boarding passes as blue error screens took over flight information display boards.

Many flights were delayed for hours or cancelled, with IndiGo alone cancelling at least 283 trips on Friday and Saturday. Other airlines such as Akasa Air, SpiceJet, Vistara, Air India, and Air India Express did not provide details of their cancellations. The issues began at 3.30 a.m. and hit Indian airports and airlines when their systems received the faulty update.

Bangalore International Airport Ltd said in a statement that airports were facing issues due to downtime affecting a departure control system developed by the firm Navitaire.

Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu urged airlines to accommodate affected passengers with food and water during the delays.

Airlines were able to implement the fix to some extent and restore digitised boarding procedures. However, airline executives warned that the disruption would “cascade” over subsequent days, due to planes reaching late for subsequent flights.

The Union government’s eOffice suite for processing files and paperwork was also impacted for two hours, according to a source.

Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said the National Informatics Centre was not impacted.

Recovery process

While Crowdstrike has withdrawn the faulty update and says it has issued a fix, network and IT administrators have had to manually execute a manual four-step recovery process to fix affected systems, as computers and servers need to boot completely to download the fixed software.

The Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-in) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology shared these steps in an advisory in the afternoon.

Mr. Vaishnaw said the government was “continuously” engaging with Microsoft, and that CERT-in was talking to chief information security officers at various critical infrastructure entities. “All impacted entities are working to bring up their systems,” Mr. Vaishnaw said.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd said in a stock filing that “production/despatch operations were briefly halted” in the firm, but that they had fixed the bug internally.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told a U.S. news channel that he was “deeply sorry” about the disruptions and said the firm would extend support to impacted customers. Microsoft said in a statement that it is “actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.”

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE

Grand finale: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the RNC, in Milwaukee on Thursday. APJae C. Hong

Donald Trump, sombre and bandaged, accepted the GOP presidential nomination on Thursday at the Republican National Convention in a speech that described in detail the assassination attempt that could have ended his life just five days earlier before laying out a sweeping populist agenda, particularly on immigration.

Recalls shooting

The 78-year-old former President, known best for his bombast and aggressive rhetoric, began his acceptance speech with a softer and deeply personal message that drew directly from his brush with death. Moment by moment, the crowd listening in silence, Mr. Trump described standing onstage in Butler, Pennsylvania, with his head turned to look at a chart on display when he felt something hit his ear. He raised his hand to his head and saw immediately that it was covered in blood. “If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark,” Mr. Trump said. “And I would not be here tonight. We would not be together.”

Mr. Trump’s address, the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes, marked the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally that drew thousands of conservative activists. Sensing political opportunity in the wake of his near-death experience, the often bombastic Republican leader embraced a new tone he hopes will help generate even more momentum in an election that appears to be shifting in his favour.

Deportation operation

“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly,” Mr. Trump said. “I am running to be President for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”

Mr. Trump also outlined an agenda led by what he promises would be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. He repeatedly accused people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally of staging an “invasion”. Additionally, he teased new tariffs on trade and an “America first” foreign policy.

Mr. Trump also falsely suggested Democrats had cheated during the 2020 election he lost and suggested “we must not criminalise dissent or demonise political disagreement,” even as Mr. Trump has long called for prosecutions of his opponents.

He did not mention abortion rights, an issue that has bedeviled Republicans ever since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federally guaranteed right to abortion two years ago, nor did he mention the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which Mr. Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Mr. Trump has long referred to the people jailed for the riot as “hostages.”

Indeed, Mr. Trump barely mentioned Mr. Biden, often referring only to the “current administration.”

Putting out to sea

Trainees from King Fahd Naval Academy of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces during their afloat training course at the First Training Squadron of the Indian Navy in Kochi, Kerala. Seventy-six Saudi Naval cadets completed their course. PTI-

Agence France-Presse, Reuters

Dhaka

Raging fury: A foot overbridge set on fire in Dhaka on Thursday.AFP-

Bangladesh on Friday announced the imposition of a curfew and the deployment of military forces after the police failed to quell days of deadly unrest that has spread throughout the country.

At least 105 people have been killed in this week’s violent student protests against quotas for government jobs. According to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, at least 52 people were killed in the capital city on Friday. Television news channels were off the air and telecommunications were widely disrupted on the day.

Protesters stormed a jail in the central district of Narsingdi and freed the inmates before setting it on fire, as the police struggled to quell unrest, with huge rallies in Dhaka despite a ban on public gatherings.

“We have banned all rallies, processions and public gatherings in Dhaka today,” police chief Habibur Rahman said, adding the move was necessary to ensure “public safety”. That did not stop another round of confrontations between police and protesters around the sprawling megacity of 20 million people, despite an Internet shutdown aimed at frustrating the organisation of rallies.

“Our protest will continue,” said Sarwar Tushar, who joined a march in the capital and sustained minor injuries. “We want the immediate resignation of [Prime Minister] Sheikh Hasina. The government is responsible for the killings.”

‘Destructive activities’

Dhaka’s police force earlier said the protesters had on Thursday torched, vandalised and carried out “destructive activities” on numerous police and government offices. Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which remains offline after hundreds of students set fire to a building.

“About 100 policemen were injured in the clashes yesterday,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain said.

The police had arrested Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, the joint secretary of the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Near-daily marches this month have called for an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups.

‘EPFO’s IT systems are dysfunctional, crash-prone’

Vikas Dhoot

NEW DELHI

The IT systems of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), are in a virtual logjam, and efforts to flag software and hardware deficiencies triggering incessant crashes over the past two and a half years have been ignored by its top brass, its officers conveyed to Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday.

Seeking the Minister’s immediate attention, the EPF Officers’ Association has cautioned that a “continued denial” of the problem will only exacerbate the situation and hinder remedial efforts.

Situation in Bangladesh an ‘internal matter’, says MEA

Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI

Randhir Jaiswal says External Affairs Minister is closely tracking the ongoing protests in the neighbouring country, where at least 15,000 Indian nationals — including many students — live

Activists perform a song during a protest in solidarity with students in Bangladesh, in New Delhi, on Friday.SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is following the ongoing protests in Bangladesh “closely”, said a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday. Speaking at the weekly briefing, the Ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal described the clashes between the protesters and law enforcement officials as an ‘internal matter’ of Bangladesh.

Sources said the Indian High Commission was working with Bangladesh authorities to help Indian students who want to return home in view of the uncertainty and violence.

The protests in Bangladesh turned into violent clashes between the students and political parties on one side and the police on the other.

‘In touch with officials’

Responding to questions on India’s response to the situation, Mr. Jaiswal assured that the Indian High Commission and relevant departments in the Ministry are tracking the development and said, “We are aware of the measures taken by the local authorities in view of the protests. Our High Commission remains in touch with local authorities for the safety of our nationals.”

Mr. Jaiswal said at least 15,000 Indian nationals were currently in Bangladesh and urged family members to follow updates from Indian officials.

“We remain committed to providing all possible assistance to our nationals in Bangladesh,” said Mr. Jaiswal. Sources said that Indian officials in Dhaka were coordinating with the Border Security Force and the Bureau of Immigration in facilitating the return of Indian students from Bangladesh.

Protesters have been demanding an end to the quotas in government jobs that gives an advantage to candidates from the families of the 1971 freedom fighters, women and tribes.

Police vs police

Police personnel try to disperse contractual police assistants who had gheraoed Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's official residence in Ranchi on Friday. The contractual staff have been on a protest seeking job regularisation. PTI-

Employees donating organs to be granted 42-day special casual leave: Railway Board

S. Vijay Kumar

CHENNAI

Railway employees who donate organs will be entitled to a 42-day special casual leave (SCL), the transporter has said.

Last year, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had issued instructions regarding grant of SCL to organ donors, in consultation with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW). The DoPT said that organ removal from a donor was a major surgery, which required time for recovery, including both hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation period.

Extending the provision to railway employees, the Railway Board said SCL was a welfare measure in the public interest since organ donation was a noble activity to help another human being. In an order issued last week, railway employees were informed that SCL would be granted irrespective of the type of surgery for removal of the donor’s organ, on the recommendation of the doctor. However, the facility would be subject to the condition that the organ transplant surgery took place in a railway hospital or empanelled private institution.

The leave would be granted to all types of living donors provided that the donor had been duly approved for donation by the competent medical authority as per the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. The SCL would not be combined with any other leave except in exceptional circumstances of complications of surgery.

In a related development, the Union government has earmarked funds for honouring the kin of deceased organ donors.

According to official sources, the MoHFW in a communication has approved felicitation for all deceased organ donors, and his/her family members by presenting a shawl, certificate with frame, and some flowers, as a mark of respect to every deceased organ donor at the time of donation. The cost of felicitation would not exceed ₹1,000 per donor. It was suggested that two staff members of the respective State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation or local representatives from the government medical college/hospital should visit the donor’s hospital/home and felicitate the family members.

PM is ‘lying’ about 8 crore new jobs and rubbing salt into wounds of youth: Cong.

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

Mallikarjun Kharge

Ahead of the Parliament session that begins on July 22, the Congress brought unemployment back to the centre stage with party president Mallikarjun Kharge accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “rubbing salt into the wounds” of the youth with his claim that “eight crore new jobs” were created.

The Prime Minister emphasised last week that the creation of eight crore new jobs in the last three to four years had “silenced” those spreading fake narratives about unemployment. Mr. Modi was quoting from a recent report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In a post on X on Friday, Mr. Kharge said, “According to the RBI report, there was an increase of 2.1 crore in employment between 2012 and 2019, but the International Labour Organization report says that this increase is only two lakh. In fact, the main source of both reports is the government Periodic Labour Force Survey. So what is the truth then.”

“Is it not true that according to the government’s own Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises, the informal manufacturing sector lost 54 lakh jobs in seven years due to the triple impact of demonetisation, flawed GST and COVID-19,” the Congress leader asked.

It is not clear how the RBI arrived at its 2023-24 numbers, given that it did not reveal the sector-wise breakup, something it did in previous years, he said. “Modi ji, stop hiding the promise of providing two crore jobs per year, by misusing RBI and publishing FAKE reports,” he wrote.

At a press conference earlier in the day, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the government’s “knee jerk” policy decisions cost the economy ₹11.3 lakh crore and resulted in a loss of 1.6 crore informal sector jobs.

Seeking help from Centre to evacuate students: Assam CM

The Hindu Bureau

GUWAHATI

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday sought the Centre’s help to evacuate students from the State stranded in violence-hit Bangladesh.

More than 400 students and tourists from India, Bhutan, and Nepal have been evacuated through Dawki on the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border over the past 48 hours, officials in Shillong said.

“I have spoken with Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita on the evacuation of the students. He said the Centre is on the job of evacuating many boys and girls from Assam studying in the medical colleges of Bangladesh,” the Chief Minister told journalists.

Ruhul Amin, Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner in Guwahati, said the Assam government contacted him for help to evacuate the students from the State. “I have not been able to follow it up as there is a blackout of Internet and phone services in Bangladesh,” he said.

Officials in Meghalaya said more than 300 people were evacuated via Dawki till Thursday. More students crossed over on Friday.

Among the 202 Indians — four of them tourists — who were evacuated on Thursday, 67 were from Meghalaya.

The foreign students evacuated through Dawki comprised 95 from Nepal and seven from Bhutan. The Indian students evacuated on Friday included 13 Kashmiris.

Ensuring safety

A statement from the Meghalaya government said officials were in constant touch with the Bangladesh High Commission and the Indian High Commission apart from the Land Port Authority at Dawki and the Exporters’ Association to ensure the safety of the students.

SC to hear plea to probe

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on Friday, said a petition seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team to probe each and every instance of quid pro quo, corruption, and kickbacks revealed through the disclosure of details of the electoral bonds would be listed for hearing on July 22.

The petition was filed by Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan, Neha Rathi, and Cheryl D’Souza.

The petition submitted that some of the country’s main investigative agencies like the CBI, ED, and the Income Tax Department “appear to have become accessories to corruption”.

Several firms that were under investigation by these agencies have donated large sums of money to the ruling party, potentially to influence the outcomes of probes, the petition has said.

“Thus, the investigation, in this case, would not only need to unravel the entire conspiracy in each instance, but also the officers concerned of agencies like the ED/I-T and CBI, etc., who appear to have become part of this conspiracy,” it said.

Referring to reports and extensive data mining done by The Hindu and other media outlets, the petition has said the information published reveals that the bulk of the bonds appear to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporate firms to political parties.

‘Largest scam’

“Though these apparent payoffs amount to several thousand crores, they appear to have influenced contracts worth lakhs of crores and regulatory inaction by agencies worth thousands of crores and also appear to have allowed substandard or dangerous drugs to be sold in the market, endangering the lives of millions of people in the country. That is why the electoral bonds scam has been called by many astute observers as the largest scam in India so far, and perhaps in the world,” the petition has said.

‘Only Nirmala has to resign in connection with Valmiki scam’

The Hindu Bureau

BENGALURU

Siddaramaiah

Launching a counter-attack on the BJP-JD(S) combine that has been demanding his resignation over financial irregularities in Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd., Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday argued that if anyone has to resign over it, then it has to be Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, as the national bank through which the irregularities took place came under the Union Finance Ministry.

The Chief Minister made this argument both inside the Legislative Assembly and also at a press conference.

“The Opposition and ED are only trying to sully my image and defame my government by unnecessarily blaming me. I am no way connected with the decision-making process of the corporation as it does not come under the portfolios being held by me,” he said.

“We will take strict action against whoever is involved in these irregularities,” he said at the press conference.

The multi-crore scam came to light when the accounts superintendent of the corporation P. Chandrashekaran ended his life leaving behind a note, mentioning unauthorised transfer of money belonging to the corporation under pressure from two persons.

HC stays Khan’s move to form V-C selection panels for 3 varsities

The Hindu Bureau

KOCHI

Arif Mohammed Khan

The Kerala High Court on Friday stayed for a month further proceedings on a notification issued by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in his capacity as Chancellor for constituting search-cum-selection committees for selecting Vice-Chancellors of the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, and Thunchanth Ezhuthachan Malayalam University.

Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. passed the stay orders when writ petitions filed by the State government and some of the Senate members of the universities challenging the Chancellor’s notification came up for hearing.

The court on Thursday stayed further proceedings on a notification issued by the Chancellor for constituting the selection committee for the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (Kufos) on a petition filed by the State government.

The government and other petitioners contended that University Grants Commission regulations and the University Act did not confer any authority on the Chancellor to constitute a search-cum-selection committee for selection of Vice-Chancellors of the universities. The State could only constitute such committees by exercising its executive power under Articles 162 and 246 of the Constitution.

ED attaches properties belonging to M3M India

The Hindu Bureau

NEW DELHI

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties spanning 88.29 acres and worth about ₹300.11 crore belonging to M3M India Infrastructures Private Limited in connection with an alleged money laundering case, said the agency on Friday.

The ED investigation was based on an FIR registered by the CBI alleging corruption involving Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the then CM of Haryana, among others.

The accused persons allegedly cheated landowners, and authorities by getting a notification issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and under Section 6 of the Act which the landowners were forced to sell to coloniser companies at a price lower than the prevailing rate.

Voters will deliver strong rebuke to BJP: Venugopal

Abhinay Deshpande

Mumbai

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal on Friday said the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance was determined to unseat the ‘corrupt’ Mahayuti government in Maharashtra. He said the State’s electorate would deliver a strong rebuke to the ruling alliance in the coming Assembly elections.

The Alappuzha MP, along with Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, reviewed the party’s preparations and strategies for the polls. Mr. Venugopal said the Opposition would present a strong narrative and party leaders had been instructed to speak with a unified voice.

Glitch in software update may have triggered global Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage: experts

John Xavier, Sahana Venugopal, Nabeel Ahmed

Chennai

Wings clipped: The outage impacted flight services in many cities, including Bengaluru.Hemanth C.S.Hemanth C S

In the early hours of Friday, reports emerged that Microsoft’s Azure cloud service was facing an outage, affecting users in the Central U.S. area. Within the next few hours, the service outage spread like wildfire to several other countries, including India, disrupting flight operations and air traffic, forcing airports to shift to manual operations. Brokerages and stock exchanges were also hit, throwing digital lives of many out of gear.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issued a severity rating of “critical” for the incident.

What caused it?

Microsoft, while acknowledging the outage in a blog post, noted that “Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, may encounter a bug check”.

The tech giant estimated that the approximate time of impact could be as early as 4.09 a.m. UTC (9.39a.m. IST) on Thursday, when this update started rolling out.

While Microsoft has not fully revealed what caused the outage, one incident seems to have triggered this cyberevent — a glitch in the software update of Falcon Sensor, the endpoint protection programme of CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity firm that deploys unified security programmes to stop breaches in real time. The Falcon Sensor platform runs with high privileges and is built to protect endpoints (basically, any devices connected to a computer network). A mishap in this security platform can cause the operating system to crash, like what several users faced globally on Friday with the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Once BSOD flashes on a user’s screen, they will be caught in a boot loop cycle, which simply means that they won’t be able to access their devices linked to CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform.

What is BSOD?

BSOD is a warning that users see on their computer when the system interrupts operations and displays it on a blue screen. This is what many users saw on Friday when they tried to access their devices. Officially referred to as the “Stop Error”, the warning is issued when a critical problem forces Windows to reboot. Before rebooting, the Windows operating system saves a file on the computer, carrying data about the error. This file is called a ‘minidump’ and is crucial for determining the cause of the error.

What caused the glitch?

According to CyberArk’s CIO, Omer Grossman, there are range of possibilities, starting from “human error — for instance, a developer who downloaded an update without sufficient quality control — to the intriguing scenario of a deep cyberattack, prepared ahead of time and involving an attacker activating a “doomsday command” or “kill switch”. And it is anyone’s guess until CrowdStrike’s own analysis and updates are out in the coming days. Alternatively, the software update made by CrowdStrike could have conflicted with the changes introduced in the latest Windows update, CYFIRMA’s CEO, Kumar Ritesh, pointed out.

The latter could be a good area to probe into as other cloud service providers, like Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services (AWS), did not suffer any outage. It is also important to note that both Google and Amazon have built their cloud platform on Linux.

How did it hurt?

Thousands of users opened their devices to see BSOD as many people faced delays and disruptions at the airport.

In the past when businesses faced such outages and cybersecurity breaches, often carried out by foreign attackers, Microsoft addressed them with confident optimism. However, on Friday, as users across the world struggled with simple tasks such as making digital payments or found themselves stranded in airports, there was growing fear and frustration. Computer emergency response teams worldwide quickly tried to ascertain if the IT outage was the work of cybercriminals or even state-backed hackers. The outage seriously impacted Microsoft’s users ranging from airports, airlines, financial institutions, and hospitals, down to office workers and casual Internet users trying to log into their Microsoft apps or devices.

Current status of outage

The situation is gradually returning to normal, with CrowdStrike sharing that a fix had been deployed.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on X.

However, with even the White House tracking the situation, both Microsoft and CrowdStrike will have many difficult questions to answer in the coming days.

UPSC files criminal case against Puja Khedkar for forgery

The Hindu Bureau

New Delhi

It issues show-cause notice for cancellation of her candidature in the 2022 Civil Services exam and debarment from future examinations

Under fire: Trainee officer Puja Khedkar speaks to mediapersons regarding the police interrogation in Washim district on Tuesday.ANIANI

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said on Friday it has registered a criminal case against probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar for allegedly forging identity papers and misrepresenting and falsifying facts to obtain extra attempts in the Civil Services Examination-2022, beyond the prescribed limit.

The UPSC issued a show-cause notice for cancellation of her candidature in the 2022 examination and debarment from future examinations or selections. The UPSC stated that it conducted “a detailed and thorough investigation in the misdemeanour of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate of CSE-2022”.

“From this investigation, it has been revealed that she fraudulently availed attempts beyond the permissible limit under the Examination Rules by faking her identity by way of changing her name, her father’s & mother’s name, her photograph/signature, her email ID, mobile number and address,” the UPSC said in a statement.

It has come to light that Ms. Khedkar attempted the examination 12 times after fraudulently obtaining an OBC certificate and a Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) certificate citing visual impairment and mental illness.

Ms. Khedkar told mediapersons in Washim, Maharashtra that the “judiciary will take its course”.

In 2022, she had moved an application in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) seeking relaxation of the upper age limit for PwBD candidates in the Civil Services Examination. In its order in 2023, the CAT stated that the candidate had successfully cleared the examination, but repeatedly skipped six medical examinations to prove her disability before a medical board at the AIIMS, adding that “her candidature is liable to be cancelled”. Despite the ruling, she was inducted in the services and sent on field training till June, when she came under the scanner for abuse of power during her posting at Pune.

A case has been registered for forgery and cheating under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections of the Informational Technology Act and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Ex-Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra is new Ambassador to U.S.

Suhasini Haidar

NEW DELHI

Vinay Kwatra

Amid “differences” with the United States over India’s ties with Russia and a number of other issues, New Delhi has announced that it will send Vinay Kwatra, who retired as Foreign Secretary last week, to Washington as India’s new Ambassador, filling a position that has been lying vacant for over six months.

According to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Kwatra will “take up the assignment shortly”. Mr. Kwatra’s larger task ahead will be to assess the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections in November and engage with the new administration. He will also be expected to prepare for a possible visit by U.S. President Joseph Biden for the Quad Summit that India is due to host later this year. His challenge will be to smooth over recent differences between the two countries over the Pannun case, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as well as recent U.S. pronouncements on the human rights situation in India.

Speedy appointment

Officials said both New Delhi and Washington sought to expedite the process of appointing the new Ambassador, as indicated by the speed with which requests were made and approved: Mr. Kwatra handed over charge to the new Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on July 15, after which his Ambassadorial appointment was approved by Washington in less than a week. It is also significant that New Delhi has decided to post an Indian Foreign Service officer who retired in a senior position, rather than an officer still in service, as has been the practice for two decades.

Through much of the 1980s and 1990s, New Delhi had posted “political appointees” as U.S. Ambassadors, including former Minister and J&K Governor Karan Singh, former West Bengal Governor Siddhartha Shankar Ray, and former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra. In 2001, the government had appointed retiring Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh to the U.S., but subsequently, all eight Indian envoys to Washington, between 2004 and 2024, were serving Foreign Service officers. Mr. Kwatra’s predecessor in South Block, Harsh Shringla, had in fact been Ambassador to the U.S. before he became Foreign Secretary.

‘Agree to disagree’

In a sign that the government is also taking a more conciliatory position on criticism from the U.S. over the Russia visit, the MEA said that it “agrees to disagree” with U.S. Ambassador Eric Garcetti over his comments indicating Washington’s disapproval last week. Asked about India’s response, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the Ambassador was “entitled to his opinion”.

“India, like many other countries, values its ‘strategic autonomy’,” Mr. Jaiswal said. “Obviously, [the U.S. and India] have different views. Our comprehensive global strategic partnership with the U.S. gives us the space to agree to disagree on certain issues, while respecting each other’s viewpoints,” he added.

Fast filling up

The Prakasam Barrage across river Krishna has been receiving copious flow of flood water owing to heavy rain in the catchment areas. A view of the barrage in Vijayawada on Friday.G.N. RAO

Karnataka HC issues notice to power supply companies on electrocution of elephants

The Hindu Bureau

Bengaluru

A file photo of Ashwathama found dead on June 11.

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday ordered the issue of notice to Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTLC) and various electricity supply companies (Escoms) after the State Forest Department pointed out that sagging electrical wires in forests and illegal electrical fencing put up by private landowners were among the causes for electrocution of elephants and other wild animals.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind passed the order while hearing a PIL petition, which the court suo motu initiated on June 14 based on newspaper reports on the death of 38-year-old Dasara elephant Ashwathama on June 11 owing to suspected electrocution. It was found dead at a camp in the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.

During the hearing, the Forest Department, while elaborating on the measures in place to protect the elephants, pointed out that it had on many occasions communicated to the KPTCL and Escoms about the sagging high-tension electric lines passing through forest areas but received no response. Similarly, landowners who put up illegal electrical fencing too failed to respond.

‘Tusker was unwell’

Also, the department, in its statement, has pointed out that the elephant Ashwathama died due to liver and pancreas-related ailments as per the post-mortem report submitted by a team of veterinarians, and not due to electrocution as was suspected initially.

Earlier, government counsel pointed out that the department had erected barricades using old railway tracks, installed tentacle fencing, and dug elephant-proof trenches running to several kilometres to prevent jumbos from straying out of forests.

U.P. Deputy CM hits out at Akhilesh over his ‘monsoon offer’

The Hindu Bureau

Lucknow

Keshav Prasad Maurya SANDEEP SAXENA

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Friday ridiculed Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s “monsoon offer” as “day dreams” and described the principal Opposition party in the State as a “sinking ship”.

Mr. Maurya also predicted a 2017-like defeat for the SP against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2027 Assembly election in the State.

‘Will repeat 2017’

“In 2027, the people and BJP workers will again bring the SP’s monsoon offer to 47. It is a sinking ship and a dying party with an uncertain present and future. We will repeat our success in 2017 once more in 2027 and ensure that the ‘Lotus’ comes back to power,” the Deputy Chief Minister said in a post on X.

The SP, under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, had won only 47 seats that year.

Amid reports of a rift in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP, the Samajwadi Party chief, in a cryptic post on Thursday, said, “Monsoon offer: sau lau, sarkar banao. [bring 100, form government].”

Naidu outlines his vision for ‘Viksit Andhra Pradesh-2047’

The Hindu Bureau

VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu shared his vision for the development of the State with the theme, ‘Viksit Andhra Pradesh-2047’, in a meeting with NITI Aayog CEO B.V.R. Subrahmanyam at the Secretariat on Friday.

Mr. Naidu said he would ensure that Andhra Pradesh made a valuable contribution to the emergence of India as a global force by making plans for it at his level in the due course and drawing lessons from the reforms introduced by him in the unified State.

The target was to achieve a growth rate of 15% and double the per capita income. He stated that due focus would be laid on eradicating poverty and adopting latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), for bringing about the desired transformation as a progressive State.

Efforts should be made to develop Amaravati and Visakhapatnam as AI hubs in the future, he said, while revealing a plan to establish an AI university in the State. Further, Mr. Naidu said the government accorded top priority to reviving the agriculture sector and promoting natural farming, and said the Rayalaseema region had good scope for setting up food processing industries.

Four-year-old child dies of suspected H1N1 in Kochi

The Hindu Bureau

KOCHI

A four-year-old child is suspected to have died of H1N1 (swine flu) at a private hospital in the city on Thursday.

Officials of the Health Department in Ernakulam said on Friday that the case is being investigated to confirm the cause of death of the child, Liyon Libu of Varapuzha. The child, who was admitted to the hospital with high fever on Thursday, was immediately shifted to the intensive care unit. However, he died around 8.45 p.m.

The health authorities said they wouldvisit the house of the child as part of the investigation into the cause of death. A confirmation on whether the death occurred due to H1N1 is expected without much delay, they said.

UPSC Chairperson Manoj Soni quits 5 years before completion of tenure

Vijaita Singh, Mahesh Langa

NEW DELHI/Ahmedabad

Manoj Soni PTI

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Chairperson Manoj Soni has resigned due to “personal reasons”, almost five years before his tenure ends in 2029, sources told The Hindu.

Mr. Soni, who joined the commission as a member in 2017, was sworn in as the Chairperson on May 16, 2023.

“He resigned almost a month back,” a top source told The Hindu. The source added there was no clarity if the resignation would be accepted and he would be relieved.

The source also clarified that the resignation was not linked to the controversy regarding UPSC candidates securing employment by presenting fake certificates.

Mr. Soni is learnt to have submitted his resignation to the President of India. However, the government is yet to announce the name of the new Chairperson.

According to sources, he wants to devote more time to Anoopam Mission, a branch of Swaminarayan Sect in Gujarat. He became a monk, ornishkam karmayogi(selfless worker), in the Mission after receiving diksha, or initiation, in 2020.

Mr. Soni is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had picked him as the Vice-Chancellor of M.S. University in Vadodara in 2005 when he was 40 years old, making him the youngest Vice-Chancellor in the country.

Prior to his appointment to the UPSC in June 2017, Mr. Soni had served three terms as Vice-Chancellor in two universities in his home State of Gujarat.

Not linked to Puja issue

Sources added that the resignation was not linked to the controversy regarding trainee Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Puja Khedkar, who allegedly forged identity papers and presented a disability certificate to get into the service.

After Ms. Khedkar’s case surfaced, social media was abuzz with several cases of candidates, presently in service, who allegedly forged documents to get benefits reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD). The cases raise questions about the sanctity of the UPSC’s exam and selection processes.

The UPSC is a constitutional body as mandated under Article 315-323 Part XIV Chapter II of the Constitution of India. The Commission conducts several examinations on behalf of the Union government.

It also conducts Civil Services Examinations every year and recommends candidates for appointment to the IAS, the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), and the Central Services - Group A and Group B.

CBI arrests first-year MBBS student from Ranchi in NEET case

Amit Bhelari

PATNA

Kumari is a member of the ‘solver gang’ and was present in Hazaribagh on May 5 to solve the leaked question paper of the entrance test, say officials

A CBI team reached the girls’ hostel of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences on Wednesday and after questioning, detained Surabhi.PTI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested a first-year MBBS student of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak case.

CBI sources said Surabhi Kumari, of the 2023 batch, was a member of the “solver gang”.

They said Ms. Kumari, a resident of Ramgarh district in Jharkhand, was allegedly present in Hazaribagh along with four others to solve the leaked NEET-UG paper on May 5.

On Wednesday, a CBI team reached the girls’ hostel at the RIMS and after questioning, detained Ms. Kumari. The next day, the team took her to the CBI office in Ranchi for further questioning.

Parents informed

The agency informed the RIMS management about the interrogation and asked it to inform Ms. Kumari’s parents. On Thursday evening, her parents reached the CBI office, where they were told about her alleged role in the paper leak case.

Ms. Kumari’s arrest comes a day after the Central agency arrested four MBBS students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna in connection with the case. A Special CBI court has sent them to CBI custody for four days.

These arrests were made two days after the agency arrested Pankaj Kumar and Raju Singh. Mr. Kumar, a resident of Bokaro, was arrested in Patna for stealing the question paper from the trunk of the National Testing Agency in Hazaribagh, and Mr. Singh for helping him.

Speaking about Ms. Kumari, RIMS public relation officer Rajiv Ranjan said, “She is a bright student. So far, whatever exams she has taken, she is above average. Whatever cooperation the CBI has asked us to do, we are fulfilling it,” he said.

(set by Dr. X)

1 of 4

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3 of 4

4 of 4 Scan to play

Across

1 One attending courses is changing career to secure work (8)

5 Long for right look to entice (6)

10 Leads to development of Mensa (5)

11 Tesla creates a revolutionary station wagon (6,3)

12 Tense singer cut by star's criticism (7-2)

13 Column on celebrity hosting present occasion (5)

14 Grass is strong! Relief to release worries essentially (6)

15 Starts to eat uncooked rice, gets loose motion (7)

18 Rodent turned alert, avoiding a snake (7)

20 Excellent and elegant, guiding ball close to hole (6)

22 It's used for cleaning bachelor pad (5)

24 Italian cake in container - crust of excellent quality (9)

25 Accepted endless distress in terrible old form of torture (9)

26 Separate from boy lacking concern (5)

27 Showy displays in club inside old retreat (6)

28 Decided to take a little rest? Professor talked monotonously (6,2)

Down

1 Distant voyage to Mercury conducted, revolutionary (6)

2 Most creepy and brutal perjuries in court (9)

3 One writing about famous people's quirky compulsions in essence (6,9)

4 Starts to eloquently praise fancy green centrepiece for table (7)

6 Take a firm decision and stop being chaser in one-legged tag (3,4,4,4)

7 Former prisoner is caught, nailed by segment of DNA (2-3)

8 Thief in new reel, slyly stealing fancy car (8)

9 Powerful number captivating teenybopper on vacation (6)

16 He couldn't swim naked (9)

17 Inquiry about lab blowing up is expected (8)

19 Rematch with athlete essentially chasing record-breaking streak (6)

20 Woo endlessly, entertaining with sincerity (7)

21 Bird over top of building in city of Palestine (6)

23 Bird in Seoul, exotic (5)

Unacademy and

The Hindu Bureau

Chennai

1 of 2

2 of 2

Unacademy, an educational technology company, will organise a virtual conclave in association with The Hindu for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants on July 20 and 21.

After the inauguration at 4 p.m., the summit will begin at 5 p.m. with a discussion on “Indian Democracy in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities” by All India Congress Committee general secretary and Rajasthan’s former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.

On managing disasters

Following this, J. Radhakrishnan, Additional Chief Secretary to the Tamil Nadu government, Cooperation and Food Department, will speak on the “Role of IAS Officers in Disaster Management and Public Policy”.

Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat, Additional DGP Law and Order, Telangana, will guide students on “Career Paths via UPSC Exams and Responsibilities of the Youth of India” at 7 p.m. There will be a talk by actor Shefali Shah on the “Role of women in leadership and social change” at 9 p.m.

On July 21, political activist and academician Yogendra Yadav will speak on “The Idea of India: Challenges and the Way Forward” at 11 a.m. This will be followed by coach and former cricketer V.V.S. Laxman’s talk on “Strategies for Excellence: Lessons from Indian Cricket’s Success”.

At 2 p.m., Olympic medallist Mary Kom will speak to students on being “Fearless in the Face of Adversity”. At 4 p.m., Diplomatic Affairs Editor of The Hindu, Suhasini Haidar, will discuss “Is India’s Soft Power Policy Still Relevant?”.

Environmental issues

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh will deliver a talk on the “Environmental Challenges for India” at 5 p.m.

There will be a speech by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on “What Will India’s Infrastructure Look Like in 2030?”.

Students can pose questions to the speakers through the live chat feature.

Register for the e-summit for free by scanning the QR code.

3,000 Army troops, 500 special forces deployed in Jammu

Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI

Around 3,000 Army troops and 400 to 500 special forces personnel have been inducted into the Jammu area around a week ago, defence sources said on Friday. This is in addition to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) deployed there.

“There has been an augmentation of troop levels, both Army and considerable numbers of CAPFs, in the Jammu area recently,” officials said.

On Monday, four Army personnel, including a Captain, and a Jammu and Kashmir policeman were killed in an encounter in the Doda area of Jammu. This happened just a week after five soldiers were killed in Kathua.

This is the latest in a series of terrorist-related violence in the past few months in Jammu and Kashmir, with activity particularly shifting to the Jammu region and resulting in significant casualties among civilians and security forces.

The “Uniform force” battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), a counter-insurgency force, was moved to eastern Ladakh following the stand-off with China. This reduced the troop footprint at a time when terrorism was shifting from Kashmir towards Jammu. An RR battalion typically has between 15,000 to 20,000 troops.

There have been a series of attacks recently, with a distinct shift in terrorist violence to the south of Pir Panjal, reminiscent of the early 2000s when this area was a hotbed of terrorism. Officials said foreign terrorists, after infiltration, were moving to the upper reaches of Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, and Bhaderwah before moving to the Kashmir Valley.

The terrain of Pir Panjal is extremely tough, with altitudes ranging from 3,000 feet to 14,500 feet. It is also thickly wooded.

One of the main reason for the increased attrition on part of the security forces is the lack of credible ground intelligence in the Jammu region, south of Pir Panjal.

Terrorists are also using Chinese-made encrypted satellite phones, which has made interception difficult. “They can be decrypted via satellite and so remotely controlled. Their decryption is taking time,” a source stated.

Rama’s first battle

Devotees often speak to God or their guru about their inner turbulence and pray for relief from the same. Typically, such a state of mind is a result of dilemma over following dharma and can be overcome by learning lessons from the Ramayana, said Swami Mittranandaji.

Rama’s first battle was against Tataka, the ogress, whom Lakshmana and he encountered when they accompanied sage Viswamitra to his abode. A once fertile field was now the hunting ground of Tataka, who revelled in destroying hermitages and unleashing terror on all, including ascetics.

Married to the demon Sunda, Tataka, who possessed the strength of a thousand elephants (due to a boon granted by Brahma to her father), and her son Maricha terrorised the region. Viswamitra ordered Rama to kill her. One may ask if it was right to kill a female. However, Tataka was not an ordinary woman, but a fierce ogress bent upon destroying everything that is good. Only Rama could destroy her and Viswamitra advised him not to be misled by feelings of compassion for her, as she was nothing but a force of evil.

Thiruvalluvar says, “Avail yourself of all opportunities. Do not cease from practising dharma on all possible occasions to the best of your ability.”

Rama obediently killed Tataka with a powerful arrow, performing his first act of dharma, thereby ending the hardship faced by countless humans and other forest creatures, bringing peace upon the region. His act of divinity continues to light the path for numerous devotees.

U.P. train accident: toll rises to four, number of injured at 31

The death toll in the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailment in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda has risen to four, while 31 people were injured in the incident, an official said on Friday. Eight coaches of the train had derailed between Motiganj and Jhilahi railway stations on the Gonda-Gorakhpur section of the Northeast Railway on Thursday afternoon. District Magistrate of Gonda, Neha Sharma, said, "The bodies of the four have arrived at the district headquarters. Their post-mortem examination will be conducted after their relatives arrive." She added that orders have been given to conduct a magisterial inquiry into the incident. PTI

Interfaith couple get protection under UCC

Ishita Mishra

New Delhi

In the first such case after the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand Act came into force, the High Court allowed protection to an interfaith couple in a live-in relationship, provided they apply for mandatory registration under the new Act within 48 hours.

The July 18 judgment came on a petition filed by a 26-year-old Hindu woman and a 21-year old Muslim man who are in a live-in relationship for some time. The couple claimed that the parents and the brother of one of the petitioners were threatening them.

Counsel for Uttarakhand submitted that under the Act, live-in partners residing in the State, whether residents of Uttarakhand or not, should submit a statement of their live-in relationship to the nearest registrar.

The court disposed of the petition saying, “If petitioners apply for registration within 48 hours, the SHO, PS Dalanwala, Dehradun shall provide adequate protection to petitioners for a period of six weeks to ensure that no harm is caused to them.”

Congress is a political parasite, says BJP president

The Hindu Bureau

BHUBANESWAR

The Congress has turned into a political “parasite”, relying not on its own power but on the strength of others, BJP president J.P. Nadda said on Friday.

Addressing the BJP’s State executive meeting in Puri, Mr. Nadda said, “The Congress failed to secure any seats in 13 States. Despite this, they are displaying a level of enthusiasm as if they have achieved a significant victory.”

“They managed to win sizeably where they relied on strength of other parties. Congress becomes zero in the States where regional parties do not support it. In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, did not ally with Congress, leading to the defeat of their leader in the State,” he said.

Navy and Army chiefs receive Param Vishisht Seva Medals

Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi and Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi were presented the Param Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service by President Droupadi Murmu at a defence investiture ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday. The President conferred 94 Distinguished Service Decorations to the personnel of the Armed Forces and the Indian Coast Guard during the ceremony. These decorations — 31 PVSMs, four Uttam Yudh Seva Medals, 59 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals — have been given to the personnel for distinguished service of exceptional order, the statement added.

Regional

- Now, Kanwar Yatra order applies to entire route in U.P., all of Uttarakhand

- Strict measures implemented to ensure communal harmony during Nuh yatra

- Muslim kanwar makers disheartened by escalating row over annual yatra

- Differences within NDA alliance over ‘nameplate’ diktat for eateries in U.P.

- AAP faces heat in Punjab, Haryana over Mann declining to comment on construction of SYL canal

- Shivaji’s iconic wagh nakh on display at Satara Museum

- Jamiat seeks immediate withdrawal of yatra order

- ‘Kejriwal’s guarantees’ for Haryana to be launched today

- A long journey to change

- A behind-the-scenes view of Kerala’s gender-sensitive textbooks

- When a home is ‘enemy property’

Now, Kanwar Yatra order applies to entire route in U.P., all of Uttarakhand

The Hindu Bureau

Lucknow/New Delhi

Adityanath govt. to soon issue formal order asking all eateries to display owners’ names but sources confirm decision ; Dhami government’s decision came during a meeting on July 12 to review preparations for the yatra ; in Muzaffarnagar, shop and stall owners start implementing directive

Religious fervour: Four brothers from Haryana’s Bhiwani, carrying their parents on their shoulders, leave for home after taking a dip during the annual Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar, Uttarakhand on Friday.ANIANI

The Uttar Pradesh government is extending the controversial order, originally issued by Muzaffarnagar police earlier this week asking all eateries to display their owners’ names, to the entire stretch of the Kanwar Yatra route in the State. The decision has been taken amid outrage over the police order. A formal State government order is likely to come out soon, but a senior official confirmed that the decision has been made.

In neighbouring Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said similar instructions were already in place in the State after the BJP government made the decision on July 12 during a meeting to review preparations for the yatra. The Kanwar Yatra begins on July 22 and will culminate on August 2.

As in Muzaffarnagar, dhabas and roadside eateries along the yatra route in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have been asked to display their owners’ names, addresses and mobile phone numbers.

The Uttarakhand decision will mostly cover Haridwar but some kanwariyas also visit Rishikesh, Neelkanth and Gangotri as part of the Kanwar Yatra.

Mr. Dhami said the purpose of the decision was not to target or put anyone in trouble. “Why should anyone have any problem in introducing themselves?” he said, while citing incidents at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar in the past, when tension broke out over some hotel and dhaba operators “hiding their true identities”, to explain the decision.

Opposition criticism

Opposition parties hit out at the U.P. government’s “divisive” order with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra calling it an attack on the country’s shared heritage and demanding that the order be withdrawn immediately and strict action taken against the officials who issued it.

“Our Constitution guarantees every citizen that he will not be discriminated on the basis of caste, religion, language or any other basis. The divisive order to put up name boards of the owners of carts, kiosks and shops in Uttar Pradesh is an attack on our Constitution, our democracy and our shared heritage. Creating division in society on the basis of caste and religion is a crime against the Constitution,” she wrote on X.

U.P. Congress chief Ajay Rai also demanded immediate withdrawal of the order. “The order is absolutely impractical. They are aiming to damage the sense of brotherhood in society, trying to create division among people. This should be cancelled immediately,” he said.

In Uttarakhand, senior Congress leader Harish Rawat said the decision taken by the two governments was unfortunate and painful. “It will foment animosity between communities and bring disrepute to the country,” he said.

Senior BJP leader and former U.P. Minister Mohsin Raza alleged that the Opposition parties are opposing the yatra itself.

“The facilities and management of Kanwar Yatra have improved in the last seven years. It is the 8th year; the State government is providing facilities and security. So, no one has to hide their name. It also gives a message of harmony. The Opposition is trying to oppose the Kanwar Yatra and not this advisory,” said the former U.P. Minister for Minority Welfare.

Names go on display

Meanwhile, in Muzaffarnagar, shop and stall owners have started putting their names and phone numbers on banners. Mohd. Phulbahar, who runs Enjoy Cafe, told reporters he was asked by officials to put the name of the owner in Hindi on the banner. He feared that it could lead to a communal divide, poison people’s minds, and impact business. “Bhaichara prabhavit hoga. (Brotherhood will be affected.) People tend to take official orders seriously. They will feel there must be something wrong with us and that is why the government has asked us to display our identity.”

Lokesh Bharti, proprietor of Sakshi Tourist Dhaba on Khatauli bypass, said he was asked by officials to put his name and phone number on the banner and to remove Muslim employees from his establishment. “I have removed four Muslim employees for the period. I feel sad for them as they will be jobless for 15-20 days.”

Mohd. Khaleel, who runs a grocery store, said for the last four years kanwariyas stopped at his shop to refresh. “We sell packaged products, so there is no question of spoiling the sanctity. Now we have to think twice before even offering a chair,” he said.

(With inputs from PTI)

Strict measures implemented to ensure communal harmony during Nuh

The Hindu Bureau

GURUGRAM

Forces were deployed following last year’s violence. FILE PHOTO SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The Nuh administration in Haryana will take several measures to ensure a peaceful celebration of this year’s Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra, including keeping a strict vigil on the procession through drones, prohibiting arms, lathis and loudspeakers, and constituting a committee of both Hindu and Muslim members, authorities said on Friday.

Unlike previous years, the yatra, scheduled for July 22, will be organised by a committee comprising local Khap and religious leaders, and not the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

These measures have been taken to prevent a situation like last year, when six people were killed and several were injured after communal clashes broke out in parts of south Haryana after devotees were attacked.

Nuh Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Kadgata told The Hindu that duty magistrates have been appointed across the district to maintain law and order.

“We held meetings with peace committees and sarpanches to ensure communal harmony during the procession. The administration will keep a close eye on everyone through drones and volunteers will coordinate with police to help maintain order. Additional police forces will be deployed at three temples and 20 other points along the route which witnessed violence last year,” he said.

Nuh SP Vijay Pratap added that police personnel would be deployed in adequate numbers along the procession route. No preventive arrests have been made so far, but police have checked on potential miscreants, and they are not present in the district, he said.

Around 8,000 devotees from Haryana and its neighbouring districts are expected to take part in the day-long procession, which will begin with the ritual bathing of the Shiva idol at Nalhar temple and culminate at the Radha Krishan temple in Singar village in Punhana. It will also halt at a Shiva temple in Ferozepur Jhirka on the way, said Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra committee convenor Surender Singh.

“Besides the devotees from outside Nuh, 2,000 local devotees will also be expected to turn up at the temples. Around 50 prominent saints will also join the procession,” he added.

Congress Legislative Party Deputy Leader and Nuh MLA Aftab Ahmed said attempts have been made in the past to disturb communal harmony in the area during the procession, and the administration must make sure that it was not repeated.

“We are not opposed to any procession. In fact, a Chaursi Kos Yatra is held peacefully in Nuh every year. But an attempt is made to provoke communal sentiments during this procession, with devotees brandishing tridents and sticks and raising slogans,” he said.

Muslim

Ishita Mishra

NEW DELHI

Yatra-ready: Kanwariyas buying T-shirts at a shop in Prayagraj. ANI

Babli Begum travels from her marital home in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut to her parents’ home in Haridwar’s Jwalapur in Uttarakhand each year during the Hindu month of Shravan, taking the chance to earn some extra money during the Kanwar Yatra. This year, however, the fact that she is a Muslim makes the annual trip more complicated.

During the yatra, lakhs of devotees of the Hindu god Shiv walk hundreds of kilometres carrying water from the Ganga to temples in their hometowns. The pots of Gangajal are carried using a pole called the ‘kanwar’, which is balanced on the shoulders of the pilgrims, known as kanwariyas orBhole. These kanwars are often made by Muslim artisans like Ms. Begum. “I sell kanwars for ₹200 to ₹300 each, and sometimes even give it for ₹100 to those who have less money to offer,” says Ms. Begum, 42. In 2004, she was recognised by the State government for saving the lives of six children from drowning in the Ganga. This year, however, her sales are likely to be hit by the row over the order on Kanwar route eateries.

Given that it is mostly Muslim artisans in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand who make the kanwars, they are finding it difficult to understand why kanwariyas have a problem buying other items from shops owned by Muslims. Afsar Sheikh, 42, from Mawana, has been coming to Haridwar since 2008 to sell his hand-made kanwars. “I have set up my shop next to a shopkeeper whose name is Rahul. None of the buyers has ever asked my religion which is clearly visible from the skull cap that I generally wear,” he told The Hindu. Rahu, his helper, says that the move asking shop owners to display names is a political stunt.

Muslims also organise free food stalls for kanwariyas and even offer their land to them to set up tents to sleep in.

Asif Rahi, founder of Paigam-E-Insaniyat (messenger of humanity), used to organise free food camps for kanwariyas in Muzaffarnagar for past 17 years. But this year, he will not do the same. “I don’t think any Bhole will come and eat in my camp,” he says, adding that he will keep up monetary contributions to such camps of Hindu groups.

Differences in NDA over ‘nameplate’ diktat for eateries in Uttar Pradesh

Anuj Kumar

New Delhi

Differences have surfaced within the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on the Uttar Pradesh government’s order asking those running eateries, tea stalls, and fruit carts to display nameplates during the Kanwar Yatra. The Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal, all alliance partners of the Bharatiya Janata Party, have advised the U.P. government to reconsider the decision on the grounds of it being “unconstitutional and divisive”.

Ramashish Rai, State president of RLD, the BJP’s only ally in western U.P., described the decision as “communally divisive and unconstitutional”. “The UP administration should take back the decision asking street vendors to display their names on their stalls,” he posted on X.

The RLD has nine MLAs in U.P. out of which two are Muslims. Its Bijnor MP Chandan Chauhan said “communities are interdependent in society” and the party’s foremost leader Chaudhary Charan Singh was against communal divisions. RLD general secretary Trilok Tyagi said if the government was so keen on the sanctity of the yatra, it should also close liquor shops during the Kanwar period.

Showing disagreement with the decision of the Yogi Adityanath government, JD(U) general secretary K.C Tyagi said a bigger Kanwar Yatra takes place in Bihar and Jharkhand but no such order [on displaying nameplates of eateries] is in effect there. “It is against PM [Narendra] Modi’s description of Indian society and his credo of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. It will be good if the U.P. government reconsiders it (the decision),” he said. Earlier, he had said that Muslims have always come forward to help those undertaking the Kanwar Yatra.

‘Against any divide’

Union Minister and LJP president Chirag Paswan also opposed the U.P. police advisory. Speaking to a news agency, he said he would “never support or encourage" any divide in the name of caste or religion.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who on Thursday described the Muzaffarnagar police order as promoting the scourge of untouchability, changed nhis point of view after the U.P. government order. “As the earlier was limited in scope, it created confusion. I don’t see any problem in the order for it shows respect to the sentiments of the faithful. It should not be given communal colour,” he said.

The BJP, which is in power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, has defended the step, claiming that it facilitates fasting Hindus who may want to eat at a pure vegetarian restaurant, where the likelihood of them being served ‘satvik’ food is higher.

AAP faces heat over Mann declining to comment on construction of SYL canal

Vikas Vasudeva

CHANDIGARH

Leaders of political parties in Punjab and Haryana sharply criticised AAP on Friday, a day after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann declined to comment on the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, the focal point of a water-sharing dispute between the two States.

After the Supreme Court asked the Centre to conduct a survey of the land allocated for construction of a part of the canal, Mr. Mann has been maintaining that the question of constructing the canal does not arise as Punjab has no spare water to share with any other State.

Fielding questions from reporters after announcing AAP’s decision to contest the upcoming Haryana Assembly poll on its own on Thursday, Mr. Mann had said he would not be able to comment on the issue as the matter is sub judice.

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa said Mr. Mann’s failure to broach the topic reflects his “weak stance” while “defending the State’s rights on its waters and the issue of the capital”.

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal termed the stand “tantamount to dealing a death blow to Punjab’s farmers and its agricultural economy for vote bank politics” ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls.

“Mann has proved yet again that he is ready to sell out Punjab’s river waters to please his master, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He has earned the dubious distinction of becoming the only Chief Minister to take an anti-Punjab stance on the SYL canal by dubbing the issue as ‘sub judice’,” he said.

In Haryana, BJP’s O.P. Dhankar said Mr. Mann’s remark has exposed AAP. “They [AAP] do not have any concern towards the people of Haryana and Delhi. The construction of SYL would benefit both States, but AAP is limited to playing politics on the issue. People in Haryana are not going to take them seriously in the run-up to the poll,” he said.

Congress’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Supreme Court has given its decision on the canal issue in favour of Haryana and it should be implemented.

Shivaji’s iconic

The historic wagh nakh, the tiger claw-shaped weapon reportedly used by Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to kill Bijapur Sultanate general Afzal Khan, has been put on display at the Satara Museum on Friday for the next seven months. The weapon, brought to India from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on July 17 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Maratha ruler’s ascension to the throne, received a grand welcome in Satara. CM Eknath Shinde, along with his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and members of the royal family of Satara attended the event.

Jamiat seeks immediate withdrawal of

Ziya Us Salam

New Delhi

The Uttar Pradesh government’s decision asking eateries and fruit vendors to display the name of the owner on the shops and carts has come in for strong criticism from the Muslim bodies, notably, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, which has called for the immediate withdrawal of the order.

The Jamiat described the decision as “unjust, discriminatory, and a clear manifestation of prejudice”.

“Just as the Dalit community has been subjected to untouchability and presented as impure for centuries, now there is a deliberate attempt to treat the Muslims similarly,” Mahmood Madani, president of the Jamiat, said.

‘Kejriwal’s guarantees’ for Haryana to be launched today

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will launch “Kejriwal's guarantees” for Haryana, where Assembly polls are scheduled later this year, AAP’s State unit president Sushil Gupta said on Friday. She will launch “Kejriwal’s guarantees” during a townhall in Panchkula on Saturday, Mr. Gupta said. “We don’t make promises like BJP and Congress, we give guarantees. These will be Arvind Kejriwal’s guarantees, not Modi’s hollow guarantees,” he said. When asked if these guarantees will include that Haryana should get SYL canal waters, Mr. Gupta quipped,“Distribution of water is the job of the Centre and the Prime Minister.” PTI

A long journey to change

Despite being the constituency of four-time Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Kuppam in Chittoor district has seen little development over the years, leaving thousands without local job opportunities. Forced to travel to Malur and Bengaluru in Karnataka for livelihood, daily wage earners live on a limb and a prayer. But with CM’s recent promises of tackling unemployment in the region, strong hopes of a better future have started blooming in their weary hearts, writes K. Umashanker

1 of 4 Nearly 15,000 people use the railway stations of Kuppam, Mallanuru, Gudupalle, and Bisanattam in Chittoor district as their starting point to reach Malur and Bengaluru in Karnataka on a daily basis, hoping to earn a good wage by the end of the day.K. Umashanker

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3 of 4 We should not blame Naidu for our predicament, but it is true that he did not take the unemployment problem seriously. A retired professor, Dravidian University, Kuppam

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Karuvadi Ganesh, 32, endures a gruelling four-hour commute between Kuppam, his hometown in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, and Bengaluru in Karnataka, every day to support his family of four on a modest monthly income of ₹18,000 as an electrician. For the past decade, this ITI diploma-holder has missed sunrises and sunsets in his native place, catching only fleeting glimpses during his daily train rides. On weekdays, securing a seat in the general compartment determines whether he sees the view or not.

Ganesh’s story mirrors the struggle of thousands, from youth to those in their 60s, due to a lack of job opportunities in Kuppam. “Unemployment in Kuppam is consuming people of all ages. Our smart-looking second-hand jackets conceal the shabby clothes beneath,” he says.

Jayanthi, 55, also makes the long commute to Bengaluru daily, as she works as a sanitation worker at a shopping mall in that city. She boards the Howrah-Bengaluru Superfast Express from Kuppam at 4.45 am and returns home by the Bengaluru-Jollarpettai MEMU Express at 7.30 pm. The last time she saw the sun in Kuppam was on Sankranthi festival in January. “I feel happy to see the sight on my way to work. Both my sons are drunkards. No girl is willing to marry them. My husband, who gets an old age pension, also drains the amount on alcohol,” she says.

Nearly 15,000 people use the railway stations of Kuppam, Mallanuru, Gudupalle, and Bisanattam in Chittoor district as their starting point to reach Malur and Bengaluru in Karnataka on a daily basis, hoping to earn a good income by late evening. Most of them work as daily wage earners, such as electricians, plumbers, construction labourers and sanitation workers. Women also join the workforce, trying their luck as housemaids in Bengaluru city and its suburbs. The ratio of daily to weekly commuters is almost equal, with about four trains catering to their needs in both directions.

History of ignorance and neglect

The issue of unemployment at this tri-state junction, bordered by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, did not surface overnight; it has persisted since the pre-independence era. Besides, Kuppam has long faced an identity crisis, with many people unaware of its precise location and significance.

When Telugu Desam Party founder N.T. Rama Rao arrived in Kuppam riding his ‘Chaitanya Ratham’ (a modified Chevrolet van) for electioneering in the 1980s, people in the eastern parts of the then-combined Chittoor district thought he was campaigning in Tamil Nadu.

Again, when N. Chandrababu Naidu, the current TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, became Kuppam MLA in 1989, many believed he had won from somewhere in Tamil Nadu. Naidu’s victory from Kuppam in 1994 made little news. It was only in August 1995 that people realised Kuppam was part of Andhra Pradesh, within Chittoor district, as Naidu led the movement to oust Rama Rao, his father-in-law, from power. On September 1, 1995, Naidu took charge as the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh and the once-obscure Kuppam was catapulted to the status of a VVIP constituency.

“If not for Naidu, Kuppam would have still been a jungle between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. There may be a thousand allegations against him and that he did nothing to address unemployment in the region, but it is because of Naidu that jungle paths have turned into motorable roads, connecting Kuppam with neighbouring states,” says a retired professor of Dravidian University in Kuppam, requesting anonymity.

Prodded further, he adds, “Earlier, the entire workforce of Kuppam constituency used to be engaged in agricultural activities. Now, they are working elsewhere, doing vocational jobs. We should not blame Naidu for our predicament, but it is true that he did not take the unemployment problem seriously.”

Even three decades after Naidu became Chief Minister, the Kuppam region has only one government degree college. Residents have begun comparing Kuppam with places like Piler in Annamayya district, represented by former chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, and Kadapa and Pulivendula (in YSR district, held by the family of ex-chief minister Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy), which witnessed fast-paced infrastructural development during their respective tenures.

Piler boasts multiple defence institutions and the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (Kalikiri campus, Chittoor), along with extensive road development. Kadapa has transformed from a modest town into a thriving city in terms of educational and medical institutions. Pulivendula has also had its fair share of growth. As for Kuppam, however, the aspirations of its residents for improved educational facilities and job opportunities remain largely unfulfilled.

Tradition of migration

Kuppam constituency, spread over Kuppam, Ramakuppam, Gudupalle, and Shantipuram mandals, in addition to Kuppam municipality, has about 2.3 lakh voters. Plagued by rural poverty, lack of irrigation waters, and limited job opportunities, the youth have adopted a tradition of migrating to Bengaluru, Chennai, and other cities in neighbouring states in search of employment. Between the 1950s and 1970s, hundreds of families permanently relocated to north-western Tamil Nadu to work in tanneries.

Similarly, between the 1980s and 2000s, many others made their way to the mining region of Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Karnataka before it was shut down on February 28, 2001, owing to high operational costs and low revenues. Despite the passage of time, subsequent generations on both sides have maintained familial ties.

At the turn of the 21st century, Kuppam anticipated growth in micro-irrigation, sericulture, horticulture, and floriculture. However, after Naidu lost power in 2004, the constituency slipped into neglect, dashing high hopes of its residents. Although Naidu returned to power in residual Andhra Pradesh in 2014 (with Telangana becoming a separate State), much of his focus shifted to ambitious projects such as Amaravati as the new greenfield capital city and Polavaram, a multi-purpose irrigation project on Godavari river, leaving Kuppam forsaken.

Naidu’s political career is closely intertwined with Kuppam’s industrial development. During his tenure, he established Industrial Park-I in 2000, featuring an aluminum factory and later, a few garment industries. However, his exit in 2004 halted their expansion and deterred new industry arrivals. The narrow roads between Palamaner and Kuppam, and Kuppam and Bengaluru further discouraged industrialists from setting up proposed units in the region.

With existing industries supporting only about 4,000 jobs, many locals were compelled to migrate to nearby Bengaluru, just two hours away. Perennial drought conditions in the region did not support major crops such as paddy and groundnut, allowing for limited cultivation of flowers and vegetables, sustaining only a fraction of the population.

Upon returning to power in 2014, Naidu oversaw the establishment of two more industrial parks in Kuppam — at Tambuganipalle village and Pogurupalle — spanning 7,000 acres. Yet, these parks have yet to see reasonable progress. Local intellectuals estimate that fully developing these three industrial parks could directly benefit around 6,000 families.

Between 2019 and 2024, the YSR Congress Party government prioritised political agendas over infrastructure development, leaving Kuppam residents disillusioned. “The vinyl printing industry thrived in Bengaluru due to the dominance of political hoardings in Kuppam over the past five years,” remarks a senior Revenue department official from the area.

Renewed hope in hearts

With Naidu once again at the centre of powernow, thousands of daily wage workers commuting to Bengaluru are fervently hoping for change. Their journeys, packed into overcrowded trains at odd hours, with many sitting on coach floors, vestibules, and footboards, are nothing short of a perilous undertaking.

Just two weeks ago, a young man from Ramakuppam mandal in Chittoor district rushing to catch a train in Kuppam, lost his life while crossing the tracks, struck by a goods train and thrown a hundred metres away. He had landed a lucrative IT job in Bengaluru and was headed to work when the accident took place. “Over the past decade, close to 100 daily wage workers have lost their lives on the tracks between Bengaluru and Kuppam. Many of them were absent-minded due to sleep deprivation. Overcrowding in trains and hastily crossing the tracks were the other reasons,” explains Lakshmi Narayana, a senior journalist in Kuppam.

Karunakar, a former daily wage worker in Malur, now runs a garment store in Bengaluru but continues to commute to Kuppam on weekends. Reflecting on his past, he shares a poignant tale of love and loss. During his daily commute between Malur and Bengaluru between 2010 and 2014, he says he fell in love with a girl from Kuppam working at a textile showroom.

“We travelled by the same train for a couple of years. Though my stop used to come earlier, I would accompany her till Kuppam. Her parents were not in favour of our marriage, but we were determined to overcome all obstacles. Once, on a rainy evening, she got down at Gudupalle station, just after Kuppam, to visit a family friend. She was run over by a superfast express while crossing the tracks. I learnt about her death only the next day. I vowed to never marry. I am well settled now, but her memory haunts me every day,” he shares.

A. Mahesh, chief administrator of Kuppam Public School and closely involved in organising cultural programmes during government functions in Kuppam, emphasises the need for sincere government efforts to tackle the region’s unemployment issues.

“There is already a proposal to bring all private and government degree colleges in Chittoor district under Dravidian University, our sole university. Its expansion plans could potentially create at least 1,000 jobs and provide livelihood to numerous families in the surrounding areas,” he says.

Jagadeesh Babu, a senior lecturer at Government Vocational Junior College in Kuppam, advocates for the establishment of more government junior and degree colleges in the constituency to address dropout rates and reduce the number of unskilled workers. “In an agrarian belt like Kuppam, the presence of private educational institutions would only burden economically disadvantaged students, leading to higher dropout rates,” he cautions.

TDP’s Kuppam in-charge and Member of Legislative Council, Kancharla Srikanth now serves as the sole representative of the region for the State government. Naidu appointed him as his deputy in Kuppam, encouraging residents to approach him with their concerns for resolution. “Now that the atrocious rule of YSR Congress Party has ended, the golden days of Kuppam have begun,” says Srikanth.

The MLC maintains that the Chief Minister’s primary goal is to eradicate poverty in Kuppam. To tackle unemployment effectively, special skills training will be provided to youth and other residents alike. “We will create job opportunities on a large scale in the region. Dairy farming, poultry, sheep rearing, and honey production will be encouraged. The potential of the horticulture sector would be tapped by setting up food processing industries. Most importantly, the Chief Minister has a dream of transforming Kuppam into an education hub. And that will be realised in a phased manner,” explains Srikanth.

In addition to that, plans include bringing back to life the airport project for Kuppam, which is expected to stimulate the region’s business dynamics. The Kuppam Area Development Authority has already begun its revival efforts.

“The Chief Minister has proposed the construction of a four-lane road between Palamaner and Kuppam, and a double road from Kuppam to Krishnagiri via Vepanapalle. This will create a conducive environment for industrialists to invest in Kuppam. Dairy development and agro-based industries will be given a fillip. Over the next five years, we hope to improve Kuppam’s entrepreneurial potential,” he adds.

A behind-the-scenes view of Kerala’s

As Kerala’s new gender-positive textbooks roll out, students, parents, and teachers weigh in on how they’re being received in schools. R.K. Roshni visits classrooms to get a refreshing view of how gender stereotypes are being overturned and inclusivity fostered

1 of 3 Charting a new path: Class III students at Government Lower Primary School, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram, with their new gender-sensitive English textbook; (below) a page from the Class III English textbook. S. Mahinsha S. Mahinsha

2 of 3 Seeing a picture of a man cooking or washing clothes will have a greater impact on a student’s mind than being just spoken about in class Niketan M. Class XII student who drew illustrations for a chapter

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“Fish curry is made by father himself.” This statement in the Class V Social Science textbook for the Kerala board syllabus, brought out in June, was just one of the changes made to break down gender norms as part of curriculum reforms initiated by the present Left Democratic Front government.

Similar references to gender parity in the textbooks for Classes I, III, V, VII, and IX were celebrated across India as leading the change in the way children are taught in school.

The first chapter of the Class V textbook has a group of friends travelling to their classmate Peeli’s village where they are served rice, tapioca, and fish caught by her father. The father’s presence in the kitchen was a break from tradition in Kerala’s predominantly patriarchal society — a factor that caused an uproar at the subcommittee meet of the Kerala curriculum steering committee in Thiruvananthapuram in December 2023.

One participant at the meeting asked: “If the father is doing everything, what is left for the mother to do?” “A revolution is set to begin in the kitchens in Kerala,” was another sarcastic jibe.

The sentence in question, though, remained unchanged in the final draft of the textbook and is now being studied in schools across the State. “That was seen as a victory, but it is tough to describe what we went through during that time,” recalls Anjana V.R. Chandran, academic coordinator of the Class V Social Science textbook development team.

An image shared by V. Sivankutty, the State’s Minister for General Education, on social media on school reopening day, June 3, had created a buzz. The illustration, from a Class III Malayalam-medium textbook, shows a man sitting on the floor, grating coconut, while his wife cooks.

Father makes ‘unniyappam’

Depicting the man engaged in a domestic chore was all about sending a message to children. At Government Lower Primary School, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram city, Class III students are studying English. Under discussion is a character named Sasha whose father is picturised as preparing a not-so-easy-to-make sweet calledunniyappam, for Sasha.

As students are quizzed by the teacher about what chores their fathers do around the house, Anjaneyan R.A. shares that his father makes sambar, does the dishes, hangs clothes out to dry, and cleans the house.

Other students in the classroom try to make each other heard about fathers who knead the dough for chapattis, steam appam, dress infant siblings, and bathe the dog. Anuroop D., father of Aadya, a classmate of Anjaneyan, says girls and boys are increasingly taught together and this is reflected in their thinking too. “My daughter expects me to pull my weight in the house, and does not shy away from pointing it out. Things have changed from the time when it was believed a woman belonged in the kitchen.” Anuroop feels the school environment has played a role in this, and the new curriculum will reinforce this.

The basis for the new thought in the textbooks is that gender sensitisation will put boys and girls in touch with the other’s thoughts and feelings, reducing the possibility of toxic relationships and gender violence. The new textbooks attempt to do just that: to demolish entrenched gender stereotypes and foster an inclusive outlook even among very young children.

An inclusive outlook

In the chapter ‘Peeli’s Village’ over which the brouhaha had erupted, one of Peeli’s friends is wheelchair-bound. Another lives in a slum with a single mother, a mill worker. A third is the daughter of a migrant worker couple from Assam, and one has entrepreneur parents.

Beena S. Nair, who teaches Social Science to Class V students at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Malayinkeezhu, on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city, says the response of the students to the lesson has been very positive. Beena attributes this to the fact that they can relate to the characters portrayed in it. Her school has two secondary students from Manipur and Assam. Now that schools in the State are inclusive with differently abled students mainstreamed, “Attitudes are changing. The foremost reaction to the differently abled is not sympathy. Instead, students suggest to teachers how better they can provide academic support to them,” says Beena.

Niketan M., a Class XII Science student at Government Higher Secondary School, Medical College campus, Kozhikode, who drew the illustrations for ‘Peeli’s Village’ is happy that he got an opportunity to become a part of a process intended to bring about a transformation.

“Seeing a picture of a man cooking or washing clothes will have a greater impact on a student’s mind than being just spoken about in class,” believes Niketan, whose own perspectives on gender equality and diversity evolved through his passion for cinema.

This inclusive approach is evident in the chapter ‘Strive Forward’ in the new Class IX work-integrated education activity book that features the country’s first transman pilot Adam Harry. “It is good to see Adam Harry written about in the textbook as one does not read about transmen or intersex people as much as about transwomen,” says transgender activist Vijayaraja Mallika, a member of the curriculum steering committee.

Until now, children were not taught about gender diversity in schools, and words like transperson and intersex person have not been regularly spoken about at home either. “When there are marks attached to it, it gets more importance and value,” she says.

At a time when the education system is highly competitive, it is the State’s responsibility to not only ensure that students attain competency but also study in an inclusive system where they can express their identity fully. The new textbooks are the first step in that direction, Mallika says.

Jayaprakash R.K., director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), which is spearheading the curriculum revision, says that since the last revision of textbooks in 2013, attitudes to gender have evolved into an acceptance of various gender identities. Court verdicts have reflected this. “In a first, the State’s curriculum steering committee has a transgender representative in poet Vijayaraja Mallika.”

The Class IX Social Science volume 2 textbook that is under print, he says, has an entire chapter on gender justice as defined in the Constitution, related court judgments, gender perceptions, gender roles, and discrimination. This portion can be the springboard for teachers to delve further into gender issues in the classroom, says Jayaprakash.

Deep-rooted perceptions

Praveena Kodoth, Professor at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, observes that a gender binary is deeply rooted in textbooks. “In pre-pubescent children, there is very little that differentiates girls and boys in terms of bodily features. They do the same things. So, there is no need to differentiate between genders at that age. You can come up with ways of learning where, irrespective of caste, class, or gender identity, you are capable of similar things. There are differences also as people have different innate abilities,” she says.

Work on the gender aspect began with an audit of the textbooks in use for the past decade, says Jayaprakash. As many as 22 textbooks were audited at random. Textbook development teams had little or no women representation. The content adhered to the gender binary of male and female. In language subjects, stories or poems by women were few and far between. A number of instances of gender bias were found in the language used; illustrations reinforced society’s gender rules.

The gender audit went beyond textbooks by conducting school visits and looking at aspects such as school infrastructure, environment, classroom practices, and parent-teacher association (PTA) through the gender lens to detect discrimination, says Chandran a convener of the gender focus group and author of the chapter on gender in the Class IX Social Science textbook. Soon it became apparent that the vision of the previous Kerala Curriculum Framework, from 2007, for a gender-sensitive approach had not been achieved.

Mridul Eapen, former State Planning Board member and chairperson of the gender and education focus group, says a start has been made with the new textbooks, but the school system is a much larger entity: there is infrastructure, school environment, classroom and pedagogical practices, PTAs, and importantly, teacher education. These too have to be addressed if the school system has to be overhauled to be gender-sensitive.

Chandran says public discussions ahead of the preparation of the curriculum framework included classroom and school-level discussions on a host of topics, including gender, in institutions across the State. The gender focus group also studied national and international education policy documents models in gender and education practices.

Jayaprakash says an orientation was given to textbook writers on preventing gender bias in language, content, and illustrations. “There has been a change from the male-dominated textbook development teams that used to be there earlier. Women comprise more than 70% of teachers in the State. Even if a proportionate representation is not seen in the textbook teams, we estimate nearly half of them are women.”

Sometimes a difficult road

The curriculum revision process that began in 2022 was rocked by controversies over gender. First, a row erupted over purported plans to seat boys and girls together on the same benches in classrooms. Though the SCERT claimed otherwise, coming close on the heels of protests over gender-neutral school uniforms, it sparked criticism from certain Muslim organisations.

The Indian Union Muslim League, part of the Opposition United Democratic Front, also trained its guns on the government over alleged attempts to impose liberalism, deny religion, and teaching subjects related to sexual gratification. “New gender inequality is being created in the name of gender neutrality,” M.K. Muneer, IUML leader, had said at an event in Kozhikode.

As work begins on textbooks for Classes II, IV, VI, VIII, and X to be published in the next academic year, Jayaprakash is optimistic that the support received for efforts towards gender-sensitive education will help textbook planners and writers pay even more attention to detail the second time round.

The Indian government has begun to auction properties belonging to erstwhile citizens of the country who now hold Pakistani and Chinese passports. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of estates classified as ‘enemy properties’. Mayank Kumar explores the Lucknow cityscape to understand the real estate challenges

1 of 4 Arch-enemy Butler Palace in Lucknow, an ‘enemy property’ now being refurbished by the Lucknow Development Authority. SANDEEP SAXENA

2 of 4 The proposed arrangem- ent is only for 11 months, and it adds that on the expiry of this period or an earlier termination, the licensee shall hand over the property to the licensor, which is CEPI. It is frightening. Mohammad Haider Rizvi Lawyer, who is fighting the legal battle of tenants occupying ‘enemy properties’

3 of 4 Halwasiya Market, situated in the older part of Lucknow, Hazratganj.SANDEEP SAXENA

4 of 4 Where will we go from here? If they sell it to us at a reasonable rate, we will take it. Faisal Azim Abbasi A resident of an ‘enemy property’

Faisal Azim Abbasi, 48, is worried for himself and his joint family of eight. He has been getting notices to sign an 11-month license agreement with the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI), a department under the Ministry of Home Affairs, formed after the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and the two Indo-China wars in 1962 and 1967.

Abbasi has known no other home other than the single-storey, 800-square-foot space in Lucknow’s Maulviganj. The house, popularly known as Zareef Manzil or Lal Kothi, has been inhabited by his family for four generations.

“My grandfather took the property on rent from the Raja of Mahmudabad in the late 1930s,” says Abbasi. They paid ₹16 and 8 annas (50 paise). In 1957, the erstwhile raja moved to Pakistan and took citizenship there.

Abbasi is among hundreds of residents across India who occupy ‘Enemy Properties’, declared thus after the Enemy Property Act, 1968, came into being. The Act enabled the state to regulate and appropriate real estate belonging to those who had left India and got citizenship of countries it has gone to war with: Pakistan and China.

Now, the Union government has begun to e-auction many of the 12,611 properties across the country, out of which 126 belong to Chinese citizens. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number, at 6,041, followed by West Bengal at 4,354. Lucknow itself has 361 such properties, with 105 occupied, the highest in U.P. and all in disrepair. Shamli district has 482, Sitapur 378, Muzaffarnagar has 274, and Budaun 250, besides the others.

These ‘enemy properties’ could be “any property that belongs to, is held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an enemy subject, or an enemy firm”. The word “enemy” signifies any country that has committed an act of aggression or declared war against the Union of India, and “property” is immovable assets and all negotiable instruments such as shares, debentures, and other commerce.

Family dynamics

Abbasi’s grandfather, Matloob Alam, signed the original lease and the family was told on September 24, 1966, via a letter from the then Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDO), Lucknow, S.S. Nigam that the building they lived in had become ‘enemy property’, and was owned by the state. “I, SDO Lucknow hereby direct Shri Matloob Alam, the occupant of the property, to pay monthly rent, dues etc. to Tehsildar Lucknow with immediate effect,” the letter had said.

Thereafter, the rent was paid to the CEPI. The amount was increased to ₹22.28 in 1972 and further increased to ₹312 in April 2013.

However, Abbasi claims that the rent has not been collected by the CEPI since December 2016. “Where will we go from here? If they sell it to us at a reasonable rate, we will take it,” he says. He considers ₹50 lakh a reasonable sum to buy the property. Alternatively, he is ready to pay five times what he is paying on rent if the lease is renewed.

Over the years, the Enemy Property Act has seen several amendments, with the most significant and recent being The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017. It expanded the meaning of the term “enemy subject”, and “enemy firm” to include the legal heir and successor of an ‘enemy’, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy; and the succeeding firm of an ‘enemy firm’, irrespective of the nationality of its members. The Act also made it clear that once a property is declared ‘enemy property’, it remains so. The amendment nullified a Supreme Court judgment which ruled in favour of Mohammed Amir Mohammad Khan, son of the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad.

Though the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad took Pakistani citizenship, Amir stayed behind as an Indian citizen, and asserted claims over various properties that were originally in his family’s name. After a prolonged legal struggle of over three decades, the Supreme Court ruled in his favour in 2005, declaring him the rightful owner, even though they have been declared ‘enemy properties’. Amir was a two-time MLA in the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly in the 1980s from the Congress party and died in October 2023 at the age of 80.

The most well-known among these properties is the three-storeyed Butler Palace, built on the banks of the Gomti river in the 1910s. The palace was originally constructed in a mix of Indo-Mughal and Rajasthani styles as the official residence of the commissioner of Avadh, Harcourt Butler, in Lucknow. It has remained empty since the 1960s, and has been branded ‘haunted’, by the Lucknavis — either by ghosts of the past or addicts of the present.

It is now missing its best brass bit and anything of value. Sometime in September-October 2023, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) began refurbishing it as a tourist attraction after receiving a no-objection certificate from the CEPI.

Another prime property is Halwasiya market in Lucknow’s Hazratganj, the older part of the city, where real estate prices start at approximately ₹15,000 per square foot, if the buyer is lucky enough to get a place.

Sued from many sides

Like Abbasi, many shopkeepers received notices for a fresh lease and licence agreement for the ‘enemy property’ they were occupying, but no one has signed one with CEPI until now. The occupants proposed a long-term lease for at least a decade, which was not accepted by CEPI.

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, the next in line from the family, is still fighting for various properties in the Supreme Court. He declined to comment on the matter since it is sub judice. Niraj Gupta, who has been his lawyer since 2003, says, “The Supreme Court has maintained the status quo related to our petition challenging the Act and its amendment provisions. The government cannot sell, auction, or create third-party rights on our properties.” Ali is an associate professor in a private university and a member of the Samajwadi Party.

Mohammad Haider Rizvi, a Lucknow-based lawyer who is fighting the legal battle of tenants occupying enemy properties, says many of his clients have been living as tenants for 70-80 years. They are all nervous after receiving renewed agreements.

“Now, the proposed arrangement is only for 11 months, and it adds that on the expiry of this period or an earlier termination, the licensee shall hand over the property to the licensor, which is CEPI. It is frightening,” he says.

In 2020, the Union government set up a Group of Ministers led by Home Minister Amit Shah to monitor the disposal of ‘enemy properties’.

The value of the earlier 9,000 surveyed ‘enemy properties’ across the country was estimated to be ₹1 lakh crore. Later, over 3,000 such properties were identified, taking the numbers above 12,000.

The guidelines for the disposal of enemy properties stipulate that if the property is valued below ₹1 crore, the custodian must offer the occupant the choice of purchase. If they refuse, the property will be e-auctioned.

Those valued at over ₹1 crore but less than ₹100 crore will be disposed of by the CEPI through e-auction or through a rate determined by the Enemy Property Disposal Committee, unless the Central government chooses to retain it.

All auctions take place through the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited, a Central public sector undertaking. In 2023, the Central government earned over ₹3,400 crore from the disposal of movable ‘enemy properties’, like shares and gold.

In U.P., 79 enemy properties identified as agricultural land, each valuing less than ₹1 crore were auctioned across Muzaffarnagar, Sultanpur, and Amroha districts till March 2024.

“A person interested in buying these properties can visit the site and talk to the local tehsildar to check documents before going ahead with the e-auction,” says Kamlesh Verma, a Home Ministry official who is the supervisor for such properties in Sonbhadra district.

Before the process of the disposing of such properties began, the U.P. government, on the directions of the Home Ministry, conducted surveys of the properties to free them of legal hindrances and set their value, so they could be auctioned off. Roughly half of such properties are without any legal hindrance.

“Our role was to help in surveying the properties and send notices to encroachers. The rest is done by the CEPI,” says Saurav Singh, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Malihabad, Lucknow.

Edit

- Living in denial about unemployment

- The promise of parametric insurance

- letters to the editor

- Wrongheaded policy

- Trump season

- ‘Kaveri could have been anyone’s mother’

Living in denial about unemployment

Arun Kumar retired professor of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and author of ‘Indian Economy’s Greatest Crisis: Impact of the Coronavirus and the Road Ahead’. 2020

Recently, citing a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report that said that 8 crore jobs have been created in the last 3-4 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Opposition of creating false narratives about unemployment. He also said that a lot of infrastructure projects are coming up, which will create more jobs. This was not only an attempt to counter the narrative of high unemployment which has been bothering the ruling party, but also a response to a flurry of reports from financial institutions, such as Citigroup, in July, which pointed to inadequacy of employment generation in India.

Conflicting reports and statements

Mr. Modi quoted a RBI ‘Data Manual’ released on July 7, called ‘The India KLEMS Database’, which “...describes the procedures, methodologies and approaches used in the construction of India KLEMS database version 2024. The dataset includes measures of Gross Value Added, Gross Value of Output, Labour Employment, Labour Quality, Capital Stock, Capital Composition... The database covers 27 industries comprising the entire Indian economy.”

Soon after the RBI released this, the State Bank of India (SBI) came out with its own report to counter the financial institutions’ reports. It said, “Even if we exclude Agriculture, the total number of jobs created in manufacturing and services is at 8.9 crore during FY14-FY23 and 6.6 crore during FY04-FY14.” It added, “The total labour force in India is at 59.7 crore, which is nearly equivalent to 56.8 crore as per the recently released ASUSE [Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises] survey. This total number of labour force is significantly different from private employment surveys.”

However, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a private data-gathering agency which publishes data on employment and unemployment, reported in July that in June 2024, the unemployment rate had risen to an eight-month high of 9.2% up from 7% in the previous month. This was contrary to the official narrative of massive employment generation.

What is a citizen to make of these conflicting reports and statements? Ground reports suggest that unemployment is a major issue. In February, about 47 lakh applicants appeared for an exam to select around 60,000 constables in Uttar Pradesh. In 2022, 1.25 crore aspirants applied for the Railway Recruitment Board’s Non-Technical Popular Categories recruitment exam. There were protests in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other States when the Agnipath scheme was announced in 2022. Indeed, the situation for the educated youth is grim, yet we expect them to be in the vanguard of ‘demographic dividend’.

Public confusion over the extent of unemployment is a result of the differences in the various data bases used. Let us examine these.

KLEMS data

The most recently cited KLEMS data is “a comprehensive measurement tool to monitor and evaluate productivity growth in the Indian economy”. It does not estimate employment but uses the official data available. For labour input it uses the Employment and Unemployment Surveys (EUS) by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), conducted between 1983 and 2011-12, and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).” Clearly, the KLMS data is based on official data from the PLFS, the ASUSE survey, etc. Given this, why would the employment series from KLEMS differ from the total employment figure given by government agencies? So, neither the Prime Minister nor the SBI should present KLEMS data as an independent source of employment data. Clearly, the officers and economists briefing Mr. Modi misguided him.

Why do different sources give widely varying estimates of employment? This is due to the highly complex structure of the Indian economy and the paucity of reliable data. India consists of the organised and the unorganised sectors. The data for the organised sector is available from statutorily published annual data. That is not the case for the unorganised sector, which employs 94% of the labour force. No other big country has such a huge unorganised sector for which data are sparse. This sector consists of possibly 11 crore farms and 6.5 crore MSME units. Surveying them annually is difficult. Data have been collected periodically via the Census every 10 years and the ASUSE survey every five years. The government is now committed to bringing out the ASUSE survey annually. But ASUSE survey data in turn depend on data from the Census and the Urban Frame Survey (UFS). There has been no Census since 2011 and UFS data apparently pertain to 2012-17. So, outdated data are being used.

Normally, in the absence of current data, earlier data should be acceptable. But 2016-2024 was an abnormal period with four shocks to the economy: demonetisation in 2016, introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, the Non-Banking Financial Companies crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. When shocks occur, use of pre-shock data for sampling creates problems due to structural changes. These four shocks specifically impacted the unorganised sector, the one that the ASUSE survey seeks to estimate. Many units closed down due to lack of working capital. People migrated, the size of towns and villages changed. Thus, a sample based on the 2011 Census would not be appropriate. Closures will not be captured and only the surviving units will be a part of the sample. The ASUSE 2024 Report says, “… 16,382 FSUs (8,495 in rural and 7,887 in urban) have been surveyed; and the total number of establishments surveyed has been 4,58,938 (2,58,296 in rural areas and 2,00,642 in urban areas). ASUSE 2022-23 gives an estimate of 6.50 crore establishments…”

Due to the shocks, the rural-urban ratio and the ratio of smaller and larger units would have changed. This could give an upward bias to the number of establishments and their employment.

Differences in PLFS and CMIE

PLFS is the other official data source quoted widely. It differs greatly from the CMIE data. This has to do with differences in definitions, such as who is counted as employed. The CMIE adopts the International Labour Organization definition and counts only those who get an income from work as employed. PLFS counts those who are working even if they do not get an income from it. So, those giving free labour or those who sit in fields but have no work also get counted as employed by PLFS. Consequently, in the last few years, PLFS has given around 50%-55% labour force participation, while CMIE says the figure stands at 40%-45%. That means there is a huge difference of about 90 million between the two. The question then is, doesn’t nearly everyone do something or the other? There are millions of home makers doing work, for example. Further, PLFS counts the disguised unemployed and the under-employed. So, as far as PLFS is concerned, almost no one is unemployed, while CMIE tells us how many have simply given up looking for work. That is also unemployment, which the official data do not recognise.

The ground-level situation of unemployment is apparent from the frequent reports about the youth struggling to get work and facing issues in examinations. But the government is in denial. Recently, the officials have denied the problems of using data that have holes in them or of citing KLEMS data from the RBI, which does not independently estimate employment. Why not admit the problem and act, lest the growing youth frustration boil over?

The promise of parametric insurance

Safi Ahsan Rizvi Indian Police Officer is Adviser, National Disaster Management Authority

The warmest year on record was 2023. A report estimated that losses from natural disasters amounted to $280 billion in 2023, of which only about $100 billion was insured. The gap in insurance coverage was particularly wide between developed and developing economies. With the world experiencing a surge in extreme weather events, the insurance industry needs to enhance disaster resilience by devising a number of alternative methods of coverage.

At present, the globally accepted method of disaster risk reduction is to transfer risk through indemnity-based insurance products, which require physical assessment of damage for payouts. However, the past is no longer a precedent for what could follow. When calamities such as cyclones, floods, tsunamis, and storms hit large populations and wipe out settlements, especially of the economically disadvantaged communities who have little record of their assets, it becomes difficult to verify the losses.

Changing course

In this context, several insurance products based on the parameters of a weather event are needed. In these, payments are triggered based on real-time measurements such as rain of more than 100 mm per day for two days in succession, or specific flood levels, and wind speed. For such ‘parametric’ products, payments are made regardless of actual loss or physical verification. Disaster-prone island countries have largely shifted from the risk retention model and embraced such insurance for climate adaptation. Over time, this has built trust between states and insurers, leading to more reasonable pricing and trigger-payout combinations.

Thus far, insurers have been offering standardised parametric products only for low frequency, high-impact disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, and hurricanes. In 2023, for instance, after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco, the country received $275 million parametric insurance cover arranged with the help of the World Bank. High frequency but low-impact disasters such as landslides, rain, and heat were overlooked, but the consequences of climate change are slowly changing that.

In India, one of the earliest uses of parametric policies was crop insurance, initiated by the government some years ago. The successful Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is based on verification of loss, while a new parametric product, the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme is based on threshold limits, not requiring field verification.

Over the years, the private insurance industry in India has witnessed a rising number of offers of parametric products, customised for States, corporations, self-help groups, and micro-finance institutions. They insure disasters such as extreme precipitation, which is an endemic issue in the north-east; cyclones, which are a standard occurrence in coastal States; and extreme heat, a suddenly prominent and much-published hazard.

Who should bear the burden of paying premiums for parametric insurance coverage? Nagaland was the first State to buy a parametric cover for extreme precipitation in 2021. Based on lessons learned, it has tendered for the second improved version by fixing an absolute annual premium, duration and rate-on-line, allowing bidders to compete over lower threshold limits and maximised payouts. It has imaginatively used the India Meteorological Department’s credible supply of data on precipitation for tehsil-sized grids, opening the doors for other States to consider similar products for insurance against cyclones, wind, and rain.

The Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation in Kerala too has implemented parametric insurance for dairy farmers for lower milk yields due to heat stress to cattle. Some non-profits and micro-finance institutions have also worked with private insurers to implement daily payouts to workers who lose wages due to excessive heat, based on pre-defined temperature and moisture triggers. Some large corporates have initiated parametric products for cyclonic winds and high waves at competitive prices, using wind speed, cyclone tracks, and storm surge data. The recent impact of heavy rains in West Bengal, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Mizoram in the aftermath of Cyclone Remal underscores the need to consider such parametric insurance as a possible means to reduce the financial burden of the State.

Ensuring effective use

For governments to ensure effective use of parametric products, five factors are essential: precise thresholds and proper monitoring mechanisms; experience sharing between governments to incorporate lessons learned; following the mandatory bidding process for transparent price discovery; a widespread retail payout dissemination system; and encouraging premium payment by households in the long term. While this is more difficult in poorer populations, parametric insurance for earthquakes in New Zealand and Turkey has shown that it can be done.

India is uniquely placed for the use of such products, given that it has the Aadhaar-based payment dissemination system. Aided by multilateral institutions, the Pacific and Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Companies have displayed regional pooling of risk and have successfully implemented parametric contracts with the insurance sector. Given South Asia’s reputation as the world’s most “climate-vulnerable zone”, India and its neighbourhood could consider such products, pool their risks collaboratively, and strike better bargains with the world’s largest insurance companies.

Railway accidents

Accountability is important in a democracy (“At least 2 dead, 31 injured as train derails in U.P.’s Gonda,” July 19). People must be held responsible for their actions and decisions which directly affect the public. Elected officials are entrusted with the mandate to serve and protect the interests of the people. When they fail to do so, it is not just a lapse in duty but a betrayal of public trust. Railway accidents show the consequences of oversight. Despite promises of improvement, these incidents continue to occur, suggesting systemic failures within the administration. Holding ministers accountable is crucial for restoring public confidence.

Neeraj Patel

Mungeli

No remorse

This is a shocking and insensitive comment from Bhole Baba (“Nobody can avoid destiny and death is inevitable, says godman Bhole Baba,” July 18). He shows no remorse. It is truly unfortunate that the name of this man has not been included in the FIR.

Tharcius S. Fernando

Chennai

Laws against superstition

Laws can protect people from harmful practices and scams (“Does India have enough laws to combat superstition?”, July 19). However, it is also a challenging task because many superstitions are part of cultural and religious traditions. Drafting these laws requires careful thought to avoid offending communities or be seen as attacking their beliefs. To be effective, legal changes should focus on stopping harm while also promoting education to help people understand the dangers of certain superstitions.

Narayanan Kizhumundayur

Thrissur

Denied entry in a mall

No high-profile celebrity or politician wearing a dhoti would have been denied entry into the mall (“G.T. Mall faces seven-day closure for denying entry to farmer in dhoti,” July 19). This is clear classicism at play.

G. Ramasubramanyam

Vijayawada

Thoothukudi firing

The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Inquiry Commission report had pinned the blame on the police and top officials of the district administration (“DVAC to inquire if assets were accumulated by police and revenue officials before and after the incident”, July 15). Clearly, restraint by the police and timely intervention by the district administration could have prevented the incident.

Chandhrashekar

Chennai

Wrongheaded policy

The Karnataka Bill on reserving jobs for locals is self-defeating

Despite the fact that attempts to provide reservation in jobs for local workers have been proven unconstitutional and have been rejected by courts, the temptation to pander to nativist sentiments remains among State governments. A case in point is the draft Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024, cleared by the Congress government’s cabinet but later “temporarily withheld” following an uproar from industry heads and trade bodies in Karnataka. The Bill envisaged that industries and other establishments would appoint local candidates in 50% of management positions and 70% of non-management positions, and set stringent criteria for defining local candidates. Similar Bills were passed in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, Haryana in 2020, and Jharkhand in 2023. While the Karnataka Bill added proficiency in Kannada as one of the criteria to define eligibility of a local candidate, the Haryana and Andhra Pradesh laws were largely based on residency criterion. The Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the Haryana Act in 2023 holding it violative of equality guaranteed under Article 14 and freedom under Article 19 of the Constitution. It added that the Act went against the rights of citizens from the rest of the country and that States enacting such laws could set up “artificial walls” throughout India. The Andhra Pradesh Act is still being heard in court, while the Jharkhand Bill has not been implemented. Apart from the aforementioned reasons, the Karnataka Bill is also violative of Article 16(3) that allows for reservation based on residence, but limits it to public employment and to be enforced only by a law made in Parliament and not by a State Legislature.

The temptation for the Karnataka government to come up with Bills that provide for reservation for locals and labour protectionism despite their proven unconstitutionality is perhaps motivated by the fact that there is resentment among resident workers in better-off States that their jobs are being taken over by migrant workers. This is especially so among those aspiring for jobs in the private sector, where some employers have sought to exploit migrant workers to work for longer hours and at lower pay without benefits or social protections and without political support that is otherwise available to local workers. If Karnataka is concerned about this segmentation of the labour market that pits the migrant worker against the locals, it should enforce labour rights for the former as well; and by curbing exploitative practices, it could create a level playing field for all workers. Protectionism for the local worker and parochialism is not the answer.

Trump season

The former president is leading, but the election is still months away

As the Republican National Convention drew to a close in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it became obvious that the Party’s expected nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential election in November, former President Donald Trump, is not only capitalising on the popularity boost that he has inevitably benefited from since surviving an assassination attempt a week earlier, but has now established total control of the Republican Party and is in a strong position to take on incumbent President Joe Biden in that regard. The Convention itself marked several firsts — not only was Mr. Trump’s speech the first major public remarks he delivered since the assassin’s bullet injured his ear but otherwise left him unscathed, but the Convention itself was held for the first time in person since the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of all public political events in 2020. It would also appear that Republican strategists have deepened their appreciation of optics as far as Mr. Trump’s appeal among the electorate goes. There was a distinct attempt to project the political power of women at the event, almost as if to soften the former president’s image, which was in years past battered by revelations of his unflattering remarks about women. Mr. Trump’s wife Melania made a rare appearance at the event, as did his 17-year-old granddaughter Kai, his daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Lara, Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders, Mr. Trump’s former Press Secretary, and Indian American Usha Chilukuri Vance, who is the wife of Mr. Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance.

There is much to analyse in Mr. Trump picking the 39-year-old Mr. Vance for Vice Presidential candidate in the upcoming race. Mr. Trump is evidently keen to win over younger demographic cohorts in this election; he is also aligned to white, male America, and what it stands for in the country’s fraught politics today. There is also a geographic message in the subtext — as the junior Senator from Ohio, Mr. Vance could also become a critical interlocutor for the Trump campaign’s engagement with the all-important Rust Belt states — swing states of the mid-western U.S. that can potentially make or break a presidential candidate. While there is no denying Mr. Trump’s overall strong position and lead in swing states according to several national polls, three months is a long time in politics, and that certainly applies to the U.S.

In another hit-and-run case in Maharashtra, this time in Mumbai, the language of money and power screams louder than the voices of the vulnerable. Purnima Sah reports from the fishing village of the victim’s family and the political muscle that kicked in from the alleged perpetrators

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2 of 5 In memoriam: Kaveri Nakhwa’s garlanded photograph placed in one corner of the living room floor at her residence in Worli Koliwada. EMMANUAL YOGINI EMMANUAL YOGINI

3 of 5 She would have turned 45 on August 19. We had plans to surprise her with presents and celebrate her birthday with all her loved ones Amruta Nakhwa Kaveri’s daughter

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5 of 5 Heartbroken: Pradeep Nakhwa, the deceased woman’s husband, at his residence in Worli Koliwada, Mumbai. EMMANUAL YOGINI EMMANUAL YOGINI

Almost every resident of Tare Galli locality in Mumbai’s Worli Koliwada knows Kaveri Nakhwa as a generous, kind, hard-working woman, who always wore a bright smile. Kaveri and her husband, Pradeep Liladhar Nakhwa, 50, from the Koli community of fisherfolk, had gone to buy fresh fish from the wholesalers at Crawford Market at 4.30 a.m. on July 7. It was a 25-minute scooter ride from their home. When the couple, who had been married for 25 years and had two adult children, were headed back with a basketful of fish to their regular selling spot in Worli, it was about 5.15 a.m.

On the road, they were hit

Pradeep says what happened that morning is embedded in his head. “I was riding the scooter at 30-40 km per hour. Suddenly, near Ceejay House, our scooter’s tail light was hit at such a speed that within seconds we were thrown up in the air. We fell on the bonnet of the car. I slipped off to one side, but Kaveri fell in front,” remembers Pradeep, who has not been able to get restful sleep since that day. “The visuals, her voice, and the crushing sound of the car is stuck with me forever; I can’t close my eyes and sleep in peace.”

He says despite him begging, the driver drove over Kaveri’s body, dragging her along. “I tried to run after the car, but he drove away,” Pradeep says. He then boarded a kaali-peeli (taxi) to reach his wife, but could not find her body.

Mihir Shah, 24, had allegedly been drinking with his friends at a bar in Juhu. The legal drinking age in Maharashtra is 25. He allegedly dropped his friends home in a luxury car, then took another one out, and drove out with his driver, Rajrishi Bidawat, in the passenger seat.

The police say that Mihir has admitted that he hit the couple, saw their bodies fly up in the air, and dragged Kaveri from anywhere between 100 metres and 1.5 kilometres. Then he swapped seats with Bidawat, took an autorickshaw from Kala Nagar in Bandra East, and went to a friend’s home in Goregaon, say the police. The friend informed Mihir’s sister, who then arrived there and took him to her home in Borivali.

Mihir’s father, Rajesh Shah, in whose name the car was registered, was arrested by the Mumbai police along with Bidawat on July 7. Rajesh was the deputy leader of the Shiv Sena’s Palghar district unit and an aide of party president and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The Mumbai police say he played a key role in destroying evidence in the case — removing the car’s number plate and a sticker of the political party — and delaying his son’s arrest. On June 8, the magistrate court granted Rajesh bail. His lawyers, Sudhir Bhardwaj and Ayush Pasbola, say he secured a provisional cash bail of ₹15,000.

The Shah family booked a resort in Shahapur in Thane district and Mihir reached there in another luxury car along with his mother, sisters, and two friends. The police say he shaved his beard and cut his hair short as his photos had been flashed across newspapers and television news channels by then.

On July 8, late in the evening, the police traced Mihir’s location to Virar when his friend turned his mobile phone on for just 15 minutes. He was arrested on July 9.

The children mourn

Worli Koliwada is a fishing village located on the northern tip of Worli island. The residents settled here over 500 years ago and are considered the original inhabitants of Mumbai. Kolis belong to a seafaring community that traditionally fish in the nearby waters for their living. In Koli households, women are the chief decision-makers. Many men wake up at 2 a.m. to catch fish in the sea and their wives sell the catch in the market. Pradeep is also a fisherman. During the monsoon, when fishing is banned, families source fish from the wholesale market that gets its stock from farms and cold storage.

At home, Kaveri’s daughter, Amruta, 24, says, “She would have turned 45 on August 19. We had plans to surprise her with presents and celebrate her birthday with all her loved ones.” Yash, her 21-year-old son, remains in shock, does not speak to anyone, and has confined himself in a room. Kaveri’s garlanded photograph has been placed in one corner of the living room floor, with a lamp and fruits on a plate beside it.

Refuting media reports and the police statement that Kaveri was dragged for 100 metres to 1.5 km, Pradeep says, “The distance from Ceejay House to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link is 10.9 km and it takes at least 20 minutes to drive there.” The taxi driver suggested they go to the police station, he says. “I informed the Worli police station and within 15 minutes the control room said that a woman’s body was found at the Sea Link.”

The same day, the police took Pradeep back to the spot for an initial investigation. “The fish and lobsters were still scattered around, some crushed by moving vehicles. We could not find her mangalsutra, bangles, not even her clothes. The car dragged her at such a speed that when she was found all bruised, there was nothing on her body,” he remembers.

The police inspector on duty that day had not spoken to his mother for two years. After he saw Kaveri’s body, he cried. “I called my mother. Kaveri could have been anyone’s mother,” he says.

Relatives and neighbours gather every day at the Nakhwa house expressing grief and anger. They are planning to stage a candle march when the rain subsides. They are also discussing staging a protest in front of the Worli police station if they do not get justice in the case.

Soon, politicians arrive

On July 11, amid heavy security, State School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar entered the narrow lanes of Koliwada. With an umbrella held for him, the Minister spent half an hour with the Nakhwa family, asking them to have faith in the judiciary and assuring them that the culprit will be given the strictest punishment. So far, over 15 political leaders from different parties have visited the family.

“All the politicians visiting us are either offering lawyers or money,” says Pradeep, then unleashing a barrage of questions. “Why should I take their money or lawyer? What is the guarantee that they won’t suppress my case however they want? I will sell my house, live on the streets, but fight till my last breath until I get justice for my wife. On the day of the accident, why did Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis not say a word? Why have they not visited us yet? Will they be quiet if it had happened to their own wife and children? Would they have let me go if I had committed such a crime?”

Prominent politicians such as Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh, and Shiv Sena leader Milind Deora also visited the family. Thackeray had told mediapeople, “This is not a mere accident. This must be treated like a murder case. They allowed Mihir Shah to be in hiding for 60 hours and allowed him to remove the number plate and party symbol from the car.”

Then, “Will the illegal CM have the guts to run a bulldozer on Mihir Rajesh Shah’s home? Whoever is responsible, we will not spare anyone, we will punish everyone,” the Sena (UBT) leader said, though it was unclear how he would ensure this.

Addressing reporters, Shaikh had said, “This is not a government for the common people, but one that supports those who crush common people under their car. The government will have to pay for the pain of the Nakhwa family.” The State Assembly elections are due later this year.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut also criticised the way the case was handled from the beginning and alleged that Rajesh has connections with underworld gangsters. On July 10, the Shiv Sena chief sacked Rajesh from the post of deputy leader of the party.

Deora tweeted on X (previously Twitter), “I visited late Kaveri Nakhwa’s family, who was killed in the Worli hit-and-run case, to express my deepest condolences and to assure them of my unwavering support in helping them get justice.”

On July 11, the Chief Minister announced a financial aid of ₹10 lakh from the CM’s Relief Fund for the Nakhwa family and said action will be taken against all pubs and bars that operate late into the night. “All legal and financial support will be provided to the family of the victim by the State government. I believe the victim’s family is like our family,” the CM had told reporters.

Pradeep now gets calls from NGOs and individuals offering help. “I am getting calls from different parts of India, and I do not even know these people. All are either offering money or legal support. What will I do with the money when the centre of our life, our backbone, is taken away?”

Mumbai sometimes drives dirty

On July 9, the State Excise Department suspended the licence of the bar in Juhu, Vice-Global Tapas Bar, for serving liquor to Mihir. Officials also alleged that Mihir and his friends were served 12 large pegs of whiskey on that day and the bill was ₹18,000. On July 10, the civic body of Mumbai demolished unauthorised constructions on the ground floor and terrace of the bar.

On July 16, Mihir was sent to judicial custody for 14 days. His lawyers opposed the remand order at the Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Sewri, saying it was unnecessary.

Representing the Mumbai police, public prosecutors Ravindra Patil and Bharti Bhosle asked the court to extend his custody as the accused had not revealed important information in the case. “Considering the gravity of the crime, it is important to find out who all harboured him when he went missing after the accident. He has not talked about them yet,” the prosecution said.

The defence counsel said the police’s remand report states that they have recorded the statements of 27 witnesses.

Retired Justice, Sandeep Shinde, the chief prosecutor in the Salman Khan case, says, “In many high-profile cases, including the recent one in Pune, the rich have pushed their drivers forward to own all the allegations. In the Worli hit-and-run case too, they tried this, but in this case, the victim’s husband’s statement should have been recorded at the magistrate court on the first day itself.” Pradeep’s statement was only recorded before the court on July 16.

In 2002, actor Salman Khan was arrested for allegedly running over five homeless people sleeping on a pavement in Bandra. In 2015, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. In 2013, a high-end luxury car owned by Reliance Ports, a private company controlled by industrialist Mukesh Ambani, reportedly driven by his older son, Akash, met with an accident, but the driver, Bansilal Joshi, claimed responsibility for it.

Kaveri had dreams

Kaveri’s parents, Kesari Nath Wadhkar, 77, and Bharati Wadhkar, 67, cannot stop crying. “If we do not demand justice for our Kaveri, then the rich who live without fear of law and order will be encouraged to repeat it with someone else tomorrow,” Bharati says.

Rina Dabri, one of Kaveri’s two sisters, remembers her as someone who would call the entire family every day over the phone.

“Her dreams were very small, just like any woman from a lower-income family. She would have been happy even with a temporary job for her children. When our children started to earn, she was telling me one day that our bad days are over. From the scooter to the renovation of our house and this air-conditioner, everything was bought with her small savings,” Pradeep shares, in their 400-square-foot home.

Kaveri was loved by her daily customers. A family that bought fish from her flew down from Dubai when they heard about the accident. “There is so much support only because of the woman she was,” says her father.

Pradeep remembers how Kaveri kept a stock of bajra to feed birds on their veranda. “Every day, at least 70 birds would fly in. Now, some birds won’t eat when we feed them,” he says.

Business

- The steam engine of today: elevating India’s capital goods for a global electronics revolution

- India plans to enter into carbon crediting mechanism with Japan

- ‘EPFO’s IT systems are dysfunctional and crash-prone’

- Agriculture exports slide 3% to $5.88 bn in Q1 FY25

- RIL Q1 PAT declines 4% to ₹17,448 crore

- Wipro Q1 net rises 4.6%, revenue slides 4%

- Paytm parent’s April-June quarter loss widens to ₹840 cr.

- Tata Motors introduces sport utility coupe Curvv

- Power OTC platform New Age to unveil new products in FY25

Elevating India’s capital goods for a global electronics revolution

Pankaj Mohindroo

In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, a single invention changed the world: the steam engine. This powered factories, drove progress and transformed economies. The steam engine symbolised a nation’s ability to innovate, produce, and lead.

Today, India stands at similar crossroads with its capital-goods industry, especially in electronics manufacturing. The industrial countries of East Asia did not invest in machinery by chance. The investments were driven by export-oriented strategies and demands of international competition. To seize this moment, we must harness the same spirit of innovation that fuelled the Industrial Revolution.

India’s electronics production has reached an impressive milestone of about $115 billion in FY24, growing by almost four times in the past decade. Projections for the next five years are even more promising, with expectations to multiply this figure by five times. Globally, the electronics market, currently valued at $4.5 trillion, is anticipated to soar to $6.1 trillion by 2030.

These figures highlight an opportunity and a call to action for India to capture its rightful place in the world stage.

Central to this vision is the role of capital goods — machinery, tools, and equipment that drive production. Advanced capital goods enable us to produce high-quality electronics efficiently and at scale. Our focus should be on developing unique, cutting-edge solutions that serve domestic and global markets. This demands a significant investment in research and development, supported by policies that encourage innovation and protect intellectual property rights (IPR).

Demand supply gap

Meeting domestic demand and targeting the export market are both essential. At home, there is an urgent need to close the gap between the demand and supply of capital goods. By bolstering our manufacturing infrastructure, we can reduce dependency on imports and ensure a steady supply of high-quality equipment for local consumption. As India aims to increase its electronics production by five times, the demand for advanced manufacturing technologies will also surge, necessitating a robust domestic capital goods sector.

To spearhead this initiative, there is a need for a dedicated centre with a substantive corpus of minimum ₹1,000 crore focused on innovation in capital goods, potentially housed at the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI). Such a centre could drive the development of advanced manufacturing technologies and build capabilities essential for electronics and high-tech manufacturing. The CMTI can partner industry leaders and academic institutions to foster innovation, streamline production processes and raise overall competitiveness of Indian manufacturers.

Fostering R&D

India’s robust IPR protection can create a secure environment where new ideas can thrive. By promoting strong R&D ecosystem, we can develop indigenous technologies that not only meet international standards but also set new benchmarks in quality and efficiency.

Globally, the aim is to position Indian firms as formidable contenders. This needs a strategic approach, including understanding global market dynamics, adhering to international quality standards and building a reputation for excellence. The question then arises: why can’t India produce firms that rival the likes of ASML, the Dutch giant known for advanced machinery?

Creating such an Indian champion involves many critical steps.

Prioritising the development and acquisition of advanced manufacturing technologies is crucial, supported by dedicated funds for acquiring and enhancing capital goods, including second-hand equipment.

Investing in education and training programmes to equip workforce with technical and soft skills is equally vital. Strong collaboration between industry and academia can foster innovation and ensure that research aligns with industry needs, leading to breakthrough technologies and processes. Additionally, government policies must support the growth of the capital-goods industry by providing incentives for R&D, facilitating ease of doing business, and ensuring a stable regulatory environment.

As the world moves towards sustainable manufacturing practices, India must adopt eco-friendly technologies and processes, enhancing our global competitiveness and positioning India as a responsible manufacturing hub. Embracing digital technologies such as AI, IoT, and big data can revolutionise manufacturing processes, making them more efficient and cost-effective.

Addressing technology and skill gaps is also critical for India’s ambitions in the electronics sector. Joint ventures with global leading firms can facilitate skills and technology transfer, while government programme to attract skilled diaspora and foreign experts can build domestic capabilities.

Establishing a roadmap for developing key equipment and progressing to the most cutting-edge technologies, will be essential.

Reducing the cost of capital can enable Indian manufacturers to invest more in technology and innovation, making them more competitive globally.

(Pankaj Mohindroo is the Chairman of India Cellular & Electronics Association, the country’s apex industry body for electronics with a vision to make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing and exports. Kapil Gupta, Associate Director, ICEA has contributed to this article)

India plans to enter into carbon crediting mechanism with Japan

Abhishek Law

New Delhi

Green move: The proposal will boost job creation via investments in low-carbon and clean technologies.Getty Images/istockKhanchit Khirisutchalual

India is looking to enter into a carbon trading and carbon credit adjustment mechanism with Japan.

The two countries plan to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation for setting up a Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) with emission- reduction credits being shared, as per Cabinet note prepared in July and reviewed by businessline.

Under the mechanism, carbon credits will be ‘allocated through a structured process’ and there will be a ‘registry to track these credits,” as per the note.

Projects will be taken up only when they are cleared through a Joint Committee, and both governments will notify these credits issued based on the submitted reports. The credits will be allocated to the respective registries of India and Japan, and can subsequently be used towards the Nationally Determined Contribution (a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impact) of both countries.

The proposal will “boost job creation by attracting investments in low-carbon and clean technologies”. There will also be any financial implication of such a project.

“A draft Cabinet Note has been prepared ..... authorising the MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) for the signing of MoC (Memorandum of Cooperation) between Government of India and the Government of Japan in consultation with the concerned ministries.... and MEA,” as per office memorandum of one of the Ministries said. The JCM will facilitate diffusion of leading decarbonising technologies, equipment, machinery, products, systems and infrastructure, implementation of mitigation actions, among others.

The draft (Cabinet note) has approval of the Environment Minister.

Bilateral ties

The JCM will be formed under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

As per the draft Memorandum of Cooperation, the mechanism will be implemented in accordance with “relevant domestic laws and regulation” in these respective countries.

A joint committee will be established and it will develop rules and guidelines required for implementation of the JCM that cover project cycle procedures, methodologies, project design documents, monitoring and designation of third-party entities, among others.

“Decisions by the Joint Committee on registration of the project, crediting period, sharing of credits, issuance of credits, and other related matters on the JCM are made with prior confirmation of the Government of Japan and Government of India, unless otherwise specified,” one of the provisions stated.

Emission cuts

Both governments “mutually recognise that part of JCM credits issued from emission reductions and removals may be towards the achievement of Japan’s nationally determined contribution and rest of the said JCM credits may contribute to the achievement of India’s nationally determined contribution” while ensuring double counting is avoided.

Each government can authorise part of JCM credits for international mitigation purposes too.

The two countries will confirm registration of a project prior to a decision by the joint committee; while the percentage of credit allocation will also be decided.

The MoC (draft) also mentions Japan will facilitate the transfer of technology, finance and capacity building in respect of new technologies for the joint crediting mechanism.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

‘EPFO’s IT systems are dysfunctional and crash-prone’

Vikas Dhoot

New Delhi

Deficiencies triggering incessant crashes in the past two-and-a-half years ignored by top brass, officials tell Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya

Tough going: Field officesresort to extraordinary measures to settle claims when there is a lower load on the system. file photo KAMAL NARANG

The IT systems of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), are in a virtual logjam, and efforts to flag software and hardware deficiencies triggering incessant crashes over the past two and a half years have been ignored by its top brass, its officers conveyed to Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday.

Seeking the minister’s immediate attention on their “escalating frustration” with EPFO’s creaking IT systems that make it a challenge for staffers to process millions of workers’ PF and pension claims, the EPF Officers’ Association has cautioned that a “continued denial” of the problem will only exacerbate the situation and hinder remedial efforts.

“Over the past 30 months, we have consistently brought to the attention of the CPFC [Central PF Commissioner] the ongoing critical issues affecting the EPFO’s IT infrastructure. This engagement was undertaken with the expectation of prompt remedial action. Unfortunately, our concerns have been met with a consistent lack of acknowledgment,” the association has written in a missive to the minister reviewed byThe Hindu.

“The situation has now turned grave with officers and offices reporting serious system deficiencies on a daily basis... In recent times, the software has exhibited significant instability, characterised by recurrent outages. Over the past several weeks, the application’s performance deteriorated markedly, manifesting in frequent system slowdowns, involuntary user logout and complete system failures,” the association said.

‘Formidable challenge’

Mooting a comprehensive evaluation of EPFO’s application software by leading industry experts and an urgent overhaul of IT systems, its staffers said the current state of affairs has made it a “formidable challenge” for most PF offices to process claims even within 20 days, although their performance indicators have been tweaked to measure field-level performance on basis of claims settled within 10 days.

“The exigency of a comprehensive overhaul of the EPFO Application Software has been apparent for quite some time now. Despite this critical need, the implementation of such an overhaul has been repeatedly postponed for reasons that remain obscure,” the officers’ body lamented, pointing to the rapid technological system shifts undertaken by the Income Tax department, for instance. “This discrepancy suggests a systemic failure to acknowledge the gravity of the situation,” it added.

Field officeshave resorted to extraordinary measures, including weekend and holiday operations, to try and settle claims when there is a lower load on the system. “It is reasonable to speculate that the claim settlement process would be exponentially accelerated with a fully functional software system,” the EPFOA underlined.

Agriculture exports slide 3% to $5.88 bn in Q1 FY25

Amiti Sen

New Delhi

Agriculture exports in the first quarter of the current fiscal declined 3% (year-on-year) to $5.88 billion owing to multiple factors such as the Red Sea crisis impacting freight cost, fall in global prices of maize and export ban on rice, according to the government.

The decline in overall exports of agriculture products is mainly due to a dip in exports of regulated items as exports of non-regulated items have mostly increased in the April-May period, an analysis of exports of scheduled products under APEDA reveal.

In April-May, exports of 23 groups of non-regulated agriculture products increased 3% to $3.38 billion, as per figures shared by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). These include basmati rice; buffalo, sheep and goat meat; fresh and processed vegetables & fruits; pulses; dairy products; alcoholic beverages; poultry products and floriculture.

Three regulated groups, which include non-basmati rice, wheat and milled products, posted a 1% dip in exports in April-May 2024 to $954 million.

Non-basmati exports

During April-May, basmati rice exports rose by 13% to $1.03 billion but non-basmati rice exports slid 13% to $918.83 million. The Commerce and Industry Ministry is working on identifying non-tariff barriers in major markets and putting them on a portal to deal with them.

(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)

RIL Q1 PAT declines 4% to ₹17,448 crore

The Hindu Bureau

MUMBAI

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) reported first-quarter consolidated net profit declined 4% to ₹17,448 crore from the year earlier, on higher depreciation.

“Consolidated revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 increased 11.5% YoY to ₹2,57,823 crore led by higher oil prices and volumes in O2C [Oil to Chemicals] and oil and gas segments with steady growth in consumer businesses,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

RIL reported capital expenditure of ₹28,785 crore. Consolidated net debt as of June 30, 2024 was marginally lower at ₹1,12,341 crore as against ₹1,16,281 crore as of March 31, 2024.

Jio Platforms reported net profit for the June quarter grew 11.7% YoY to ₹5,698 crore.

‘Better subscriber mix’

The average revenue per user (ARPU) came in at ₹181.7 with a better subscriber mix, promotional 5G traffic being offered on an unlimited basis to subscribers and not charged separately, RIL said.

Reliance Retail reported gross revenue of ₹75,615 crore, up 8.1% YoY. Its quarterly EBITDA at ₹5,664 crore was a 10.5% YoY growth, led by an increase in footfalls and expansion of store footprint, besides streamlining operations.

Wipro Q1 net rises 4.6%, revenue slides 4%

The Hindu Bureau

Bengaluru

Tech major Wipro on Friday reported a 4.6% rise in net profit at ₹3,003.20 crore for the June, while revenue declined 3.79% to ₹21,964 crore.

IT services revenue was $2,625.9 million, a slide of 1.2% QoQ and a decline of 5.5% YoY. Q1 saw large deal bookings at $1.2 billion while overall Total Contact Value was at $3.3 billion.

Srini Pallia, CEO and MD, Wipro said, “Our top accounts continued to grow, accompanied by growth in Americas 1, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and consumer sectors.”

On Q2 guidance, he said the firm expects IT services revenue to range between $2,600 million to $2,652 million - a guidance of (-)1.% to +1.% in constant currency terms.

Pallia in his commentary said discretionary spending continued to be muted, but he was optimistic about growth returning.

Wipro said it hired 3000 freshers in Q1 and plans to onboard up to 12,000 more this fiscal. ‘‘We are clearing all pending offers currently to be ready when growth returns,” said chief HR officer Saurab Govil.

Paytm parent’s April-June quarter loss widens to ₹840 cr.

Fintech firm One97 Communications, which owns Paytm, on Friday said its loss widened to ₹840 crore in the quarter ended June 30. The company had posted a loss of ₹358.4 crore in the same period a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing by the company. The consolidated revenue of Paytm declined 33.48% to ₹1,639.1 crore during the reported quarter, from ₹2,464.2 crore in the same period a year earlier, according to the filing. PTI

Tata Motors introduces sport utility coupe Curvv

Tata Motors Ltd. unveiled Tata Curvv, an SUV coupe in ICE and EV formats. The product will be introduced in the market on August 7, the firm said. Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd., said, “Curvv is at the forefront of our multi-powertrain strategy with options across petrol, diesel and electric powertrains. With the Curvv, we will address a wide variety of needs of the mid-SUV customers.”

Power OTC platform New Age to unveil new products in FY25

New Age Markets in Electricity, an over the counter (OTC) platform for power, is hopeful of having 25 power distribution firms on board by the end of 2024-2025 fiscal. Ashish Shrivastav, VP (Business Operations), told The Hindu 13 State utilities were registered on the platform for the power swapping/banking product unveiled last year. The OTC would unveil, buy/sell service next month and hoped to have 100 power traders registered for this product during FY25.

Foreign

- Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory ‘illegal’, says UN top court

- All eyes on election date in Sri Lanka amid concern over Bill

- United stand

- Drone strike by Houthi rebels kills one in Tel Aviv

- Iran capable of producing fissile material in 'one or two weeks': Blinken

- 40 migrants dead after boat catches fire off Haiti

- Vietnam Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, the country’s most powerful leader, dies at age 80

- Thousands protest against military operation in Pakistan

- Russia seeks an 18-year sentence for US reporter as his espionage trial concludes

- Order restored in the UK city of Leeds after overnight unrest

- U.S. panel on Afghan war holds first public hearing

- Trump family influences, reshapes Republican Party in its own image

- Zelenskyy urges Britain to help Kyiv strike deeper inside Russia

- Safe harbour

- In a key political meeting, Beijing vows to ease local government debt woes

- Obama’s dilemma: balancing loyalty and Biden opposition

- Kyrgyzstan brings back families of IS militants

Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory ‘illegal’, says UN top court

Agence France-Presse

The Hague

The ICJ’s statement, called an ‘advisory opinion’, is not binding , but it comes amid mounting concern over the war since October; Netanyahu slams the court’s opinion as a ‘decision of lies’; Hamas calls for ‘immediate’ international action

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki holds a press conference following the ICJ’s decision in The Hague on Friday. AFPNICK GAMMON

The United Nation’s top court said in a sweeping opinion on Friday that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory was “illegal” and needed to end as soon as possible.

The advisory opinion by The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) was immediately slammed as a “decision of lies” by Israel, but welcomed by the Palestinian presidency which called it “historic”.

The ICJ’s statement, called an “advisory opinion”, is not binding, but it comes amid mounting concern over the death toll and destruction in Israel’s war against Hamas sparked by the group’s brutal October 7 attacks.

It is also likely to increase diplomatic pressure on Israel, whose lawmakers voted on Thursday to oppose a Palestinian state, calling it an “existential threat”.

In The Hague, ICJ presiding judge Nawaf Salam said: “The court has found that Israel’s continued presence in the Palestinian Territories is illegal.”

Israel is “under the obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence as rapidly as possible,” the judge said at the Peace Palace, seat of the ICJ.

The ICJ added that Israel was “under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers” from occupied land.

Israel’s policies and practices, including the building of new settlements and Israel’s continued maintenance of a wall between the territories, “amount to annexation of large parts” of the occupied territory, the court said.

‘Decision of lies’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the International Court of Justice’s opinion as a “decision of lies”.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria” (the occupied West Bank), Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki called it a “watershed moment”.

“The Palestinian people have endured unbearable suffering and injustice for decades,” Mr. Al-Maliki told presspersons outside the courtroom.

Meanwhile, Hamas called for “immediate” international action to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories after the top UN court ruled it was illegal.

All eyes on election date in Sri Lanka amid concern over Bill

Meera Srinivasan

Colombo

The date of Sri Lanka’s Presidential election will be announced next week, the country’s Election Commission said on Friday, amid fresh speculation in the wake of a gazette notification issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Dated July 18, 2024, the gazette notification pertains to amending a constitutional provision on whether a referendum is required to extend the term of office of the President or the duration of Parliament. While the existing Article refers to such a term extension to “over six years”, the proposed Bill seeks to substitute that with the text “over five years”. When contacted, Chairman of the Election Commission R.M.A.L. Rathnayake told The Hindu: “We will announce the date of the Presidential election next week. The gazette is not related to this election. The two are separate matters.”

While constitutional experts, too, noted the gazette had no implication on the coming presidential election — scheduled to be held on a date between September 17 and October 16 this year — government critics and lawyers questioned the timing of the gazette. Citizens are awaiting the first election since a mass uprising dislodged former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022, when the country’s economy crashed.

No ambiguity

According to senior lawyer and constitutional expert Jayampathy Wickramaratne, who has been involved in drafting key legislation, there is no ambiguity in the current term of the President. “The term limit of the President and what this gazette addresses are two distinct issues,” he told The Hindu. “The Supreme Court has ruled that the presidential term is five years,” he said, referring to the apex court’s decisions in 2015, 2018, and twice earlier this month.

President Wickremesinghe — who has repeatedly stated elections will be held as per schedule — on Friday said he is “dedicated to preserving Sri Lanka’s democratic tradition”, and that the constitutional amendment should not be feared, according to a statement from his office. All the same, he faces criticism for the postponement of local body election last year, and the indefinite delay in holding elections to the country’s provincial councils, whose terms expired at least five years ago.

Meanwhile, leaders from his party and some supporters have called for a postponement of the election, contending that it could disrupt the Wickremesinghe administration’s ongoing economic recovery programme. Further, two petitions filed at the Supreme Court, seeking a postponement of polls, were dismissed.

“What is the necessity to bring this Bill now?” asked Opposition legislator and senior lawyer M.A. Sumanthiran. In his view, it “only confuses the electorate and potentially complicates” the holding of the presidential election as mandated by the Constitution, at the end of a five-year term.

United stand

Demonstrators hold a placard reading ‘Stop the mega-basines for an immediate moratorium’ during a march against the construction of giant water reservoir near Migne-Auxances in western France on Friday. AFPPHILIPPE LOPEZ

Houthi drone hits Tel Aviv, one killed, 10 wounded

Associated Press

TEL AVIV

An Iranian-made drone sent by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck Tel Aviv on Friday, leaving one person dead and at least 10 wounded in the group’s first lethal strike into Israel.

The aerial strike rumbled through the centre of the city near the U.S. Embassy, causing shrapnel to rain down and spreading shards of glass over a large radius.

The hit in Israel’s biggest city was startling because the drone appeared to have crossed much of the country through the multilayered air defences that have intercepted almost all of the drones and rockets that Yemen’s Houthis have been launching toward Israel since the Gaza war began. Most have failed even to reach Israel’s southernmost city, Eilat, on the Red Sea some 270 km south of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military said it was investigating what went wrong. Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the drone was detected by air defences, but an “error” occurred and “there was no interception”.

“We are investigating the entire chain,” he said. Another military official blamed “human error”. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

The spokesperson for the Houthis, Yahya Sare’e, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published on X. He said it was in retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran capable of producing fissile material, says Blinken

Agence France-Presse

Washington

Antony Blinken Amanda Andrade-Rhoades

Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within “one or two weeks,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

News of Iran’s capabilities follows the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has said his goal is to “get Iran out of its isolation,” and who favours reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers.

Mr. Blinken said that “what we’ve seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that’s actually moving forward” with its nuclear program.

The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal, which was designed to regulate Iran’s atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Speaking at a security forum in Colorado, Mr. Blinken blamed the collapse of the nuclear deal for the acceleration in Iran’s capabilities.

“Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, [Iran] is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Mr. Blinken said. He added that Iran had not yet developed a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told CNN earlier this week that his country remained committed to the deal, known as the JCPOA.

“We are still a member of JCPOA. America has not yet been able to return to the JCPOA, so the goal we are pursuing is the revival of the 2015 agreement,” he said.

Mr. Bagheri added that: “Neither I nor anyone else in Iran has not talked and will not talk about a new agreement.”

Mr. Blinken made the statement just days after reports emerged that the U.S. Secret Service increased security for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weeks ago, after authorities learned of an alleged Iranian plot to kill him.

40 migrants dead off Haiti after fire on boat

Agence France-Presse

Port-au-Prince

At least 40 migrants have died and several others were injured after a boat they were travelling in caught fire off the northern coast of Haiti, a UN agency said on Friday.

The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that the Haitian Coast Guard rescued 41 survivors, 11 of whom were hospitalised, including some for burns.

But “at least 40 migrants have died, and several others were injured,” the IOM said.

The boat, carrying more than 80 people, had left the port of Labadee on Wednesday en route to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a 240 km journey, the IOM reported, citing Haiti’s National Office for Migration.

There was no immediate information on the cause of the fire.

Migration from the poverty-stricken Caribbean country has been surging for months.

Vietnam Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong dies at age 80

REUTERS

Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party and the country’s most powerful politician, has died following months of ill health, official media said on Friday. He was 80. Trong, since elected party chief in 2011, worked to consolidate the party’s power in Vietnam’s political system. AP

Thousands protest against military operation in Pakistan, one killed

AFP

Thousands of people rallied on Friday against a planned operation by the Pakistan military to root out militants along the Afghan border, with at least one protester killed when gunfire broke out, officials and witnesses said. The protest turned violent when crowds reached the walls of an Army facility. AFP

Russia convicts U.S. reporter of espionage after a secretive trial

AP

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted on Friday of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum- security prison on charges that his employer and the U.S. government have rejected as fabricated. The swift conclusion of the secretive trial could clear the way for a prisoner swap. AP

Order restored in the U.K. city of Leeds after overnight unrest

AP

Officials in the northern English city of Leeds say order has been restored after a night of unrest that began when police and local government workers intervened in a “family incident involving children” and residents poured into the streets in protest. Officials declined to provide specifics about the incident. AP

U.S. panel on Afghan war holds first public hearing

Reuters

WASHINGTON

A commission created by Congress to conduct an independent review of the 20-year United States war in Afghanistan held its first public hearing on Friday, pledging to be “unflinching” in examining how and why key decisions were made and who made them.

The panel’s first public hearing came just over a month before the third anniversary of the chaotic final United States troop withdrawal that ended America’s longest war as the Taliban seized Kabul.

The 16-member commission, which was set up more than two years ago but began work less than a year ago, is to deliver its report by August 2026.

For Trump, the campaign to return to the White House is a ‘family affair’

Agence France-Presse

Milwaukee

Melania, the former U.S. President’s wife, who has been absent in recent months from Trump’s political life, made a dramatic return on Thursday ; Trump’s sons who have assisted him to make key decisions during his first term in office, recently played a crucial role in selecting his running mate

Full house: Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is joined by his family after accepting his party’s nomination at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. AFPKamil Krzaczynski

Donald Trump’s media-shy wife Melania made a dramatic return at his side for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday, while his sons Donald Jr. and Eric have been ubiquitous at the gathering all week.

Even his granddaughter, 17-year-old Kai Trump, made a speech, as the former President’s family has offered a way to soften his image in the aftermath of his recent convictions and other legal woes.

It was the elusive Ms. Melania’s first public showing alongside her husband since he was almost killed in an assassination attempt at a rally last Saturday — though she did issue a fiery statement soon after the shooting.

Wild cheers

Ms. Melania had also been largely absent in recent months from Mr. Trump’s political life, but drew wild cheers as she entered the convention hall, solo and dressed in red, minutes before his big showstopper speech.

“I am deeply honoured to be accompanied by my wonderful wife, Melania,” Mr. Trump said from the stage.

Prior to Thursday, Ms. Melania had not accompanied the former President on the campaign trails, nor at court appearances in a New York criminal case that saw him convicted of covering up hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had a sexual encounter with the real estate tycoon.

“She’s a complete enigma,” said Natasha Lindstaedt, a political scientist at the University of Essex, adding that the former model did not “play the typical role” of a former first lady.

“Although she seemed to share similar views to Mr. Trump on a lot of issues... she has a very conservative worldview, she doesn’t seem to care that much what people think and kind of does her own thing,” added Ms. Lindstaedt,

On Thursday she finally arrived at her husband’s side on stage, at the end of his hour-and-a-half speech.

As balloons tumbled around them, the pair exchanged an awkward kiss and held hands.

Three generations

During Mr. Trump’s first term in office between 2017 and 2021, Donald Jr. and Eric helped him make key decisions, and they now work to ensure the party leadership is stocked with loyal allies.

Most recently, their input helped tip Mr. Trump towards picking Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, a new addition to the inner circle.

“J.D. Vance and Don Jr. are very close. So he chose someone that maybe reminds him of his son or is close to his son,” Ms. Lindstaedt said.

Like wagons hitched to their father’s train, Donald Jr., Eric and daughter Ivanka have been pulled along to success, along with their friends and families.

Ms. Lindstaedt pointed to two examples of Mr. Trump spouses achieving power: Eric Trump’s wife Lara Trump, who was recently appointed co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, who Mr. Trump appointed as an advisor and entrusted with figuring out peace in the Middle East.

“Suddenly people who have no expertise, no training, no ethics training, maybe they’re not even going properly through security clearances, are given access to the most powerful positions,” Ms. Lindstaedt said.

“And we see when this happens in non-democracies and dictatorships, how it usually goes very badly.”

Natalie Koch, who researches geopolitics and authoritarianism at Syracuse University, said Mr. Trump’s nepotism is nothing new.

“The Trump organisation is a family business, but once he took office the first time, and then you could really see that he brought that into the political realm and into the White House,” Ms. Koch .

Children’s roles

Each of Mr. Trump’s children has been entrusted with different duties during this campaign.

Don Jr., 46, promotes his father’s far-right “Make America Great Again” ideology. At the convention, he highlighted the image of his father raising his fist after the assassination attempt last weekend.

Eric, 40, has doubled down on Mr. Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged. He told the convention — without evidence — that Democrats plan to win this year’s election fraudulently.

Ivanka, 42, played a role in Mr. Trump’s administration but has since devoted herself to personal matters.

Tiffany, 30, also attended the convention.

The ex-President’s grandchildren also played a role at the Republican gathering.

Mr. Trump held his youngest granddaughter, Carolina, on his lap as her father Eric spoke earlier on Thursday.

On Wednesday night Mr. Trump’s eldest granddaughter Kai won over the crowd with a glowing description of a “very caring and loving” family patriarch.

“He’s just a normal grandpa, he gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking,” she said.

The teenage daughter of Donald Jr. spoke of their shared love of golf, even when the former president tries to psych her out when playing against her.

“I don’t let him get to me, but I have to remind him I’m a Trump, too,” she said.

Zelenskyy urges Britain to help Kyiv strike deeper inside Russia

Associated Press

LONDON

In need of aid: Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in London on Friday. Getty ImagesWPA Pool

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Britain’s new government to help Ukrainian forces attack deeper inside Russia to stop deadly missile strikes on his country, as he gave a rare address by a foreign leader to a U.K. Cabinet meeting.

Mr. Zelenskyy said “long-range capability” to destroy sites where Russian weapons are concentrated is key to Ukraine’s defence. “I ask you to show your leadership” in lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons, Mr. Zelenskyy told Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Russia has deployed devastating firepower as it pursues a summer offensive in eastern Ukraine, reducing villages to rubble and pushing back Ukrainian troops in places. It has also launched missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, killing dozens and hitting targets including a Kyiv children’s hospital.

Some of Kyiv’s allies are reluctant to let Ukraine use their weapons to strike Russian territory because of concerns that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia. The British government has said it’s up to Ukraine how to use missiles supplied by the U.K., as long as international law is upheld.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr. Zelenskyy said he was seeking clarification about Ukraine’s ability to use Storm Shadow missiles supplied by Britain against targets in Russia. The Storm Shadow is an air-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 250 kilometers (155 miles).

“We need a decision about long-distance weapons, long-range, to use it,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “We need it very much. They’re targeting our hospitals, schools.”

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said Ukraine already has permission to use the missiles against Russia, but the rules for exactly what can be targeted and under what circumstances are “complex questions” that are the subject of intense negotiations.

Hit within parameters

“We’re providing weapons to Ukraine for their defence of their sovereign country, and that does not preclude them hitting targets in Russia, but that must be done by the Ukrainians. It must be done within the parameters and the bounds of international humanitarian law,” Mr. Healey told the BBC.

The United States, Ukraine’s biggest military backer, recently shifted its position, with the Pentagon saying last month that Ukraine could use longer-range missiles provided by the U.S. to strike targets inside Russia if it is acting in self-defence.

Since the beginning of Russia’s 2022 invasion, the U.S. had maintained a policy of not allowing Ukraine to use the weapons it provided to hit targets inside Russia for fear of further escalation.

Mr. Zelenskyy received a standing ovation from Mr. Starmer’s government as he entered the Cabinet room at 10 Downing St. The last foreign leader invited to address a Cabinet meeting in person was U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Mr. Zelenskyy briefed Ministers on the situation in Ukraine and the need for European countries to ramp up defence production in the face of Russian aggression. He said Ukraine had repelled Russian attempts to advance on northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, showing that “we can stop any Russian attempt to expand the war.”

Mr. Starmer is keen to stress that the U.K.’s strong support for Ukraine will continue on his watch.

Safe harbour

A view of Mavavgat coastline in Antalya, Turkey, where sea turtles lay eggs. The coastline is a major breeding area for the endangered loggerheads also known as Caretta carettas, on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species. AFPKEMAL ASLAN

In a key political meeting, Beijing vows to ease local government debt woes

Agence France-Presse

Beijing

Chinese officials pledged on Friday to help ease debt pressure on local governments through reforms to the tax system, after a key political gathering in the capital focused on jumpstarting the faltering economy.

All eyes were on how this week’s Third Plenum of the Communist Party in Beijing, attended by President Xi Jinping, might tackle the deepening economic malaise.

But few new policies were announced as the meeting wrapped up on Thursday, with officials pledging to tackle “risks” in the economy.

The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a property debt crisis, weakening consumption and an ageing population.

Adding further strain, local governments in China face a ballooning debt burden of $5.6 trillion, according to the central government, raising worries about wider economic stability.

Beijing sought to allay concerns at a Friday press conference featuring a lineup of officials.

“In response to the financial difficulties of local governments and basic organisations, it is proposed to refine the financial relationship between the central and local governments,” said Han Wenxiu, an official responsible for financial and economic policy planning.

Authorities would seek to expand local sources of tax revenue and limit expenditure requirements on local governments that violated “regulations”, Mr. Han said.

Fitch lowered its outlook on China’s sovereign credit rating in April, citing soaring general government debt that it forecast would reach 61.3% of the country’s gross domestic product this year.

Mr. Han also sought to allay fears over the struggling property market, long a key driver of national growth but now grappling with spiralling debt at some of its leading firms.

He said there had been recent “positive changes in the real estate market”, noting that the next step was “eliminating the disadvantages of the previous model of high debt”.

Obama’s dilemma: balancing loyalty and Biden opposition

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Between forces: U.S. President Joe Biden and former U.S. President Barack Obama in Los Angeles. file photoMANDEL NGAN

Former President Barack Obama has a delicate balance to strike: how to weigh the mounting opposition to President Joe Biden continuing his campaign with his loyalty to his former running mate.

In recent days, Mr. Obama has taken calls from congressional leaders, Democratic governors, and key donors in which he has shared their unease about the prospect of Mr. Biden’s campaign following his calamitous June 27 debate performance against his predecessor, Donald Trump.

But even as Mr. Obama has listened to Democrats’ concerns, he has insisted that the decision to remain in the race is only for Mr. Biden to make, according people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity.

Mr. Obama finds himself forging through the most delicate political moment for Democrats since former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, with much higher stakes. It’s a moment that requires Mr. Obama to balance his role as a party elder and an honest broker for Democrats seeking advice while avoiding being seen as betraying his former Vice President.

“President Obama has to and wants to play the role of statesman, above the political fray that former presidents have traditionally played,” said Matt Bennett, who served as an aide to Vice President Al Gore and is now an executive Vice President at the Democratic-leaning group Third Way. “He also wants to remain a credible sounding board for Mr. Biden. If he takes a public position, that ends it.”

Kyrgyzstan brings back families of IS militants

Agence France-Presse

Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan repatriated around 20 women and children from Syrian camps on Friday in the Central Asian state’s latest mission to return those stranded by the collapse of the Islamic State group.

Thousands, including from Muslim-majority countries in Central Asia, joined jihadist groups like Islamic State (IS) at the height of the Syrian war from 2013 and 2015.

Many militants and their family members are now held in detention centres or are stuck in displacement camps, often in dire conditions as countries concerned about security threats resist calls for their repatriation.

“On 19 July, 2024, another humanitarian mission was carried out to repatriate citizens of Kyrgyzstan staying in refugee camps in the north east of Syria,” Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said.

“As a result, 22 citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic — eight women and 14 children — were safely brought back to their homeland,” it said.

The United States, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other international bodies helped carry out the operation, it added.

More than 500 Kyrgyz citizens have been repatriated since 2021, most of whom need to be rehabilitated before reintegrating into Kyrgyzstan’s officially secular society, according to authorities.

The issue of whether to repatriate the families of jihadists is also a sensitive issue in European countries, many of which refuse to let citizens linked to Islamist groups return.

Sports

- India starts title defence with a thumping win over Pakistan

- Inductees Paes and Amritraj thrilled with the Hall of Fame reconnect

- Centurion Hodge and Athanaze lead West Indies’ fightback

- Lowry keeps his cool to stay ahead, Scheffler moves into contention

- Pogacar closes on Tour de France triumph with stage 19 win

- Nepal breezes past UAE in Women’s Asia Cup T20 opener

- Nadal reaches the Bastad Open semifinals after a marathon win

- Suryakumar’s childhood coach expresses joy over captaincy news

- scoreboard

- Shining a light on the athlete’s eternal battle against Father Time

- STACKING UP

- ‘Bumrah is just different gravy, isn’t he? In white-ball cricket, he is a class apart’

- Navigating pitfalls

India starts title defence with a thumping win over Pakistan

Press Trust of India

DAMBULLA

After Deepti & Co. restrict Nida’s side to a meagre 108 , openers Smriti and Shafali put on an aggressive partnership of 85 as the Women in Blue romp home with seven wickets in hand and 35 balls to spare

Star performers: Deepti accounted for three wickets while Smriti played a delightful knock of 45.Instagram/Indiancricketteam

India started its Women’s T20 Asia Cup title defence on a rousing note, beating Pakistan by seven wickets here on Friday.

India bundled out Pakistan for a below-par 108, after being asked to bowl, and then overhauled the target with as many as 35 balls remaining.

Chasing 109, Indian openers Shafali Verma (40) and Smriti Mandhana (45) were at their best as they toyed with the Pakistani attack with an aggressive display of batting.

Boundaries galore

The duo hit two fours and a six off Tuba Hassan to collect 15 runs in the sixth over and the seventh over, bowled by Nashra Sandhu, yielded 21 runs with Smriti hitting five boundaries.

Pakistan tasted success in the 10th over when Smriti was dismissed by Syeda Aroob Shah and Shafali departed in the 12th over. But the damage had already been done.

Though Hemalatha didn’t last long, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues took home the Indians in the 15th over.

Earlier, the Indian bowlers, led by the experienced off-spinner Deepti Sharma (three for 20), dished out a fine effort.

Two in an over

Pacer Pooja Vastrakar struck in the second over when she dismissed Gull Feroza, caught by Harmanpreet at mid-on.

Pooja then removed the other opener Muneeba Ali with a short-pitched delivery to leave Pakistan at 26 for two after the fourth over.

Off-spinner Shreyanka Patil packed off Aliya Riaz as the Pakistani batters continued to struggle.

Regular wickets

The Indian bowlers continued to pick up wickets at regular intervals and the next to depart was Pakistan skipper Nida Dar who holed out to Hemalatha, off Deepti, as the batter went for a heave over the straight boundary.

Pacer Renuka Singh struck twice with the last two deliveries of her spell, scalping Sidra Amin and Iram Javed off successive deliveries, to leave Pakistan struggling at 61 for six in 13 overs.

Tuba and Fatima Sana revived the innings with a 31-run stand before the former was caught by Radha Yadav at backward point off Deepti in the 18th over, an over which also saw Syeda being run out and Nashra becoming Deepti’s third wicket.

Fatima hammered left-arm spinner Radha for two sixes in the 19th over to take Pakistan over the 100-run mark.

Inductees Paes and Amritraj thrilled with the Hall of Fame reconnect

Ayon Sengupta

Newport (USA)

All ears: Amritraj and Paes watch an animated Patrick McEnroe hold court during the Hall Of Fame inductee press conference.International Tennis Hall of Fame

In the picturesque, sunny Newport, Rhode Island — just a few hours away from the hustle bustle of New York City — two Indians are waiting for their turn to enter the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

264 people from 27 nations have been honoured with the title before, and Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj will be the first Indians to join the illustrious club.

“Today sitting here at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, I wouldn’t have ever dreamt it,” Paes, the first Asian male player to make the list, said. “Playing street cricket and street football barefoot back in Calcutta, one would have never dreamt that not just one, but two young Indian boys get to sit on the podium.”

For Amritraj, who has straddled the roles of a player, diplomat, actor, television pundit, the ambition has always been to be India’s ambassador on the global stage.

Proud Indian

“Making sure that India was always represented, every single place I played, whether it was a flag, whether it was the anthem, whether it was for four people sitting there or 4,000 people sitting [was important],” said Amritraj, who is being inducted as a contributor. “It was meant to be India on the world stage and in our sport. And to me, that was always a top priority.”

Three of Amritraj’s 15 singles titles came on the grounds of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1976, 1980, and 1984. Paes’ only singles title was also won in Newport in 1998.

“I heard of the Hall of Fame the first time when I researched that Vijay had won the singles there. I researched that the grass courts were really low and hence, his slice serve, and his low volleys came into play.

“I’m not as tall as him, but I figured I could get down low to the grass too because I’m pretty short for a tennis player. And one of the unique things that we share is not just our Davis Cup passion, but also, we are champions at the Hall of Fame,” Paes said about the duo’s connection with Newport.

Talking about his association with the people of India, Amritraj said: “I feel that it’s been a very close relationship between me and the country and the people. The 30 million or so people who live overseas that have made an impact on the world and where India is today.”

Centurion Hodge and Athanaze lead West Indies’ fightback

Reuters

NOTTINGHAM

Making an impact: Hodge scored his maiden Test ton as he and Athanaze propelled the Windies first innings.Getty ImagesDAVID ROGERS

Kavem Hodge and Alick Athanaze led a West Indies revival as it finished a sunny second day of the second Test on 351 for five, 65 runs behind England at Trent Bridge on Friday.

Hodge made a fluent 120 (171b, 19x4), his first Test century, and Athanaze 82 (99b, 10x4, 1x6), the pair sharing a partnership of 175 as the visitors took advantage of good batting conditions.

“It’s been an amazing day. You always want to contribute, it was really good for the guys coming off Lord’s, coming back as a batting unit it’s always sweeter from behind,” said Hodge.

Replying to England’s 416, West Indies lost Mikyle Louis (21), captain Kraigg Brathwaite (48) and Kirk McKenzie (11) in the morning session.

Louis tried to hit spinner Shoaib Bashir over the top and was well caught by Harry Brook running back at mid on. Brathwaite was unsettled by a short-pitched delivery from fast bowler Gus Atkinson and popped up a simple catch to Pope at short leg.

McKenzie had a rush of blood, attempting to hit Bashir over mid-off and sending the ball into the hands of England skipper Ben Stokes.

Fiery Wood

Mark Wood produced a rapid spell on his return to the side, including one delivery of 97.1 miles per hour in the fastest recorded over bowled by an England player.

Athanaze was closing on his first Test century when he chopped Stokes to Brook at gully. Hodge reached three figures before being trapped lbw by Chris Woakes.

The scores: England 416 vs. West Indies 351/5 in 84 overs (Brathwaite 48, Athanaze 82, Hodge 120).

Lowry keeps his cool to stay ahead, Scheffler moves into contention

Reuters

TROON

Steady: Lowry tackled the conditions well to seize the initiative in the second round.AFP

Ireland’s Shane Lowry led the Open from English qualifier Dan Brown after a masterful second round at Royal Troon but World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was moving ominously into contention on Friday.

Lowry, the 2019 champion, rolled in a superb 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th green to complete a two-under 69 to move to seven under, two shots clear of overnight leader Dan Brown who again impressed with a one-over 72.

American Scheffler was warming to the task of lifting the Claret Jug for the first time although a bogey at the 18th rather jolted his serene progress on the Ayrshire coast.

Conditions were calmer for the early starters on Friday although winds increased considerably throughout the day to prevent much movement up the leaderboard.

Lowry made birdies at the first and fourth and after dropping a shot at the fifth he made birdie on the treacherous par-three eighth known as the Postage Stamp.

His only moment of concern was a double-bogey on the 11th but he quickly shrugged that off and made birdie at the 16th before his majestic finish on the last hole.

Scheffler, who has six wins on the PGA Tour this season including The Masters, plotted his way around impressively with three birdies although he was left frustrated following a bogey five at the 18th after finding a fairway bunker.

Woods flops

There was to be no miraculous recovery for Tiger Woods though as the American great bowed out with a disappointing round of 77 after carding 79 on Thursday.

Shubhankar Sharma’s was hanging in after fighting back with birdies on the 15th and 16th holes.

Shubhankar, who turns 28 on Sunday, the final day of this edition, had two bogeys on the seventh and the ninth, which pushed him to 7-over 149 for the tournament, as the cut looked likely at either 5-over or 6-over.

Pogacar closes on Tour de France triumph with stage 19 win

REUTERSManon Cruz

Tadej Pogacar climbed to a convincing victory on stage 19 of the Tour de France on Friday, extending his overall lead over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. With two stages remaining, the 2020 and 2021 champion Pogacar leads Vingegaard by over five minutes, while Remco Evenepoel remains third at around seven minutes.

Nepal breezes past UAE in Women’s Asia Cup T20 opener

X@CricketNep

Indu Barma and Samjhana Khadka’s exploits helped Nepal beat UAE by six wickets in the Women’s Asia Cup T20 in Dambulla on Friday.

The scores: UAE 115/8 in 20 overs (Khushi 36, Indu 3/19) lost to Nepal 118/4 in 16.1 overs (Samjhana 72 n.o., Kavisha 3/12).

Toss: Nepal; PoM: Samjhana.

Nadal reaches the Bastad Open semifinals after a marathon win

AFPADAM IHSE/TT

Rafael Nadal fought his way into the singles semifinals of the Bastad Open, defeating Argentina’s Mariano Navone 6-7 (2), 7-5, 7-5, on Friday. The 22-time Grand Slam champion is through to the last four of a tournament for the first time since Wimbledon two years ago. He is using this event as a tune-up for the Olympics.

Suryakumar’s childhood coach expresses joy over captaincy news

Getty ImagesGareth Copley

Suryakumar Yadav’s childhood coach, Ashok Aswalkar, expressed delight after the batter was appointed as India’s new T20I captain for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. “I had messaged him in the afternoon saying that ‘you would get a big message today’, and when we heard the news, I felt very proud... I feel very happy.”

PAKISTAN

Gull Feroza c Harmanpreet b Pooja 5 (5b, 1x4), Muneeba Ali c Jemimah b Pooja 11 (11b, 2x4), Sidra Amin c Radha b Renuka 25 (35b, 3x4), Aliya Riaz c Jemimah b Shreyanka 6 (11b, 1x4), Nida Dar c Hemalatha b Deepti 8 (11b), Tuba Hassan c Radha b Deepti 22 (19b, 3x4), Iram Javed lbw b Renuka 0 (1b), Fatima Sana (not out) 22 (16b, 1x4, 2x6), Syeda Aroob Shah run out 2 (3b), Nashra Sandhu c Richa b Deepti 0 (1b), Sadia Iqbal b Shreyanka 0 (4b); Extras (lb-3, w-3, nb-1): 7; Total (in 19.2 overs): 108.

FALL OF WICKETS

1-9 (Feroza, 1.4 overs), 2-26 (Muneeba, 3.5), 3-41 (Aliya, 7.5), 4-59 (Nida, 11.4), 5-61 (Sidra, 12.5), 6-61 (Iram, 12.6), 7-92 (Tuba, 17.1), 8-94 (Syeda, 17.4), 9-94 (Nashra, 17.5).

INDIA BOWLING

Renuka 4-0-14-2, Pooja 4-0-31-2, Deepti 4-0-20-3, Radha 4-0-26-0, Shreyanka 3.2-0-14-2.

INDIA

Shafali Verma b Syeda 40 (29b, 6x4, 1x6), Smriti Mandhana c Aliya b Syeda 45 (31b, 9x4), D. Hemalatha c Tuba b Nashra 14 (11b, 3x4), Harmanpreet Kaur (not out) 5 (11b), Jemimah Rodrigues (not out) 3 (3b); Extras (lb-1, w-1): 2; Total (for three wkts. in 14.1 overs): 109.

FALL OF WICKETS

1-85 (Smriti, 9.3), 2-100 (Shafali, 11.4), 3-102 (Hemalatha, 12.2).

PAKISTAN BOWLING

Sadia 2.1-0-18-0, Fatima 2-0-15-0, Nida 1-0-10-0, Tuba 2-0-36-0, Nashra 4-0-20-1, Syeda 3-0-9-2.

Toss: Pakistan. PoM: Deepti

India won by seven wickets with 35 balls to spare.

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Navigating the 30s in sport is a minefield, with every form-slump and injury-hiatus attracting severe scrutiny. Perhaps our sporting icons deserve greater empathy during these challenging years of uncertainty when they resist the selector’s axe and combat younger, shinier rivals

1 of 2

2 of 2

Sport is often deemed as the pursuit of the young. Fresh talent is placed on a higher pedestal than an ageing champion inching towards the last stretch. Over the last week, 41-year-old James Anderson walked into his cricketing sunset while Spaniard Lamine Yamal, a mere 17 summers, lit up the Euro in which his country pipped England in the final.

If Anderson was all about pathos and the wistful sigh, Yamal was linked to hope and fresh legs greased with a dollop of magic. And since Spain is the flavour of the season, add 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz to the mix. The tennis star is seemingly the next emperor in an enterprise that not so long ago was entirely the preserve of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Again the old makes way for the new.

The outliers who persevere

All of us have dallied with sport as a child, extending the trend into school and later college. But then life intervenes, work beckons, loans are inevitable and pleasure is sought from the outliers, who persevered and excelled on the turf. For them sport remained their eternal road, for us it was a detour we indulged in before we got practical. Easier to watch on television than deal with a daily 5 a.m. alarm and go for a run and follow it up with a stint at the gym.

But in the perception stakes, an athlete going past his or her 30th birthday is constantly reminded about time’s winged chariot hurrying near. Just as women in conservative societies get needless advice about a biological clock ticking. But as the cliche goes, age is just a number. Teenagers see it as an instance of escapism sought by their elders while those with multiple candles on birthday cakes often chorus: “I feel the same despite my age.”

Shortly after he bowed out from Tests at Lord’s with 704 wickets in his kitty, Anderson got past some emotional interviews and sauntered onto the outfield. It was his domain for two decades and those links cannot be shredded. Moist sentiments in check, he played with the tiny-tots as gentle throwdowns and lots of laughter ensued.

This was sport at its most elemental, devoid of nationalism and commerce. Perhaps this was all of us when we were battling with pimples and first-love angst. At that time, all we did was play a sport just for the sheer joy it offered. Gully-cricket, French-cricket (not many know it, but that calls for a separate article), table tennis, badminton, football, kabaddi and many other sweaty outlets. What Anderson did, seeking happiness from sport without added frills, is an attitude that many forget as they go up the value chain.

It is a truism that the movie ‘Jerry Maguire’, starring Tom Cruise, drilled home in 1996. Yet, sport gets coated with multiple layers. Performance, commercial heft and patriotism all get blended and hype becomes the suffocating outer layer. Throw the spectre of ageism into it and athletes cannot be blamed if they feel that they are caught in a vortex of pressure.

Adequate respite

Individual sport offers adequate respite to its senior practitioners. Federer (now retired), Nadal and Djokovic could stretch their career as all they had to deal with was just their desire for excellence and the itch to remain competitive till the last volley. Fans may have mixed feelings seeing their idols struggle but for the individuals it was all about pursuing a vocation that was second nature to them.

However, in a team sport, the dynamics change. Anderson had lost some pace but under brooding English skies, he could still test the very best. Yet his skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum felt that if the great seamer wasn’t a certainty for future Ashes battles, then it makes sense to make a change. The duo cannot be blamed as at 41, Anderson is bound to deal with more creaky bones in the years ahead.

Sport’s delicious irony is that staying in the present defines it, be it lining up a ball and offering a stroke, returning a serve or leaping high to unleash a header. Still, sport is also about building towards the future, especially in team endeavours. Anderson is good enough to play the second Test against the West Indies but would he be good enough for a future Ashes? Will his body last?

In this whirlpool of being in the present while looking at the future, hard judgements are made and it is no secret that Test cricket’s third-highest wicket-taker was nudged to leave but obviously there was respect and grace in the way the full stop was etched at Lord’s.

Sentiment can muddle things too and it did with Sachin Tendulkar as an artificial landmark — 100 international tons, clubbing Tests and ODI yields — and the attendant pressure, both nationalism and commercial, forced the maestro to extend his swansong. There was no doubting his legacy and quality but with age, reflexes slow by a millisecond and that is more than enough for an edge to be taken or a stump to wilt.

Tendulkar has seen both, of being the 16-year-old prodigy bursting upon the Test scene in 1989 and the veteran shedding tears while clasping his hand around the 2011 World Cup. He saw his ups and downs but soldiered on. At times, fans project their self-esteem upon the champion they adore. A Javed Miandad slamming a winning last-ball six off Chetan Sharma eventually became this tired batter getting run out in a 1996 World Cup quarterfinal in Bangalore. Pakistanis took time to accept both realities.

When eras collide

Sport also throws up this ‘old against young’ template and it makes for surreal memories. Ian Botham, way past his best years, testing a young Tendulkar and then scalping him during the 1992 World Cup in Australia, was a supreme moment. The elder had placed the lad in his spot and it was fun.

Botham eventually bowed out of the England squad but in individual sport, fate can be altered. Martina Navratilova, supreme tennis ace, found a late but welcome second wind as the mixed doubles partner of Leander Paes, who himself has done this whole arc of boy wonder becoming a mature legend.

The heart matters and if the limbs are willing allies, athletes can sidestep the tropes of ageism, at least in individual sport. It is again an unfair yardstick as the 30s in regular life is deemed as the phase when men and women make a mark and get ready for greater achievements.

In sport, navigating the 30s is a minefield as every form-lapse and injury-hiatus is seen with a microscope and the selector’s axe is just around the corner. Perhaps we can reveal some empathy instead of being hard taskmasters with regard to our sporting icons while also being smug and repeating the ‘losing weight’ resolution on every New Year’s eve!

‘Bumrah is just different gravy, isn’t he? In white-ball cricket, he is a class apart’

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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2 of 3 [Rahul Dravid] has done an excellent job with the national side, but it is no surprise, because in everything that he has taken on, he has always handled himself with grace, dignity and integrity

3 of 3 Wasim Akram was the best bowler... I loved watching Sachin Tendulkar play. I respected him both as a player and as a bloke... I thought Steve Waugh was a competitor at a different level

In the Nagpur Test of 2000, Zimbabwe followed on despite making 382 in the first innings. Andy Flower made 232 not out in the second innings, despite India trying out 10 bowlers, and the match was drawn. That remains the highest score by a wicketkeeper in Test cricket, in which he averaged 51.54. He led Zimbabwe to its first ever Test victory, against Pakistan in 1995. As a coach, he guided England to the T20 World Cup triumph in 2010 and to the No. 1 ranking in Tests a year later. He also helped England score a Test series win in India in 2012; no visiting team has done it since. He remains much in demand as a coach in franchise cricket. Excerpts from an exclusive interview Flower gave The Hindu over the phone from Harare:

Ahead of the T20 World Cup final recently, you had predicted India would edge South Africa.

I thought the big difference would be Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. Bumrah was outstanding again. He is just different gravy, isn’t he? In white-ball cricket, he is a class apart.

Michael Vaughan has said that Bumrah is the best seamer ever in white-ball cricket, putting him ahead of even Wasim Akram, someone you have faced quite a lot when you played for Zimbabwe.

I think it is a slightly unfair comparison because Wasim didn’t play T20 cricket. He was brilliant at what he did in red-ball and 50-over cricket. He was absolutely sensational.

He certainly was at the 1992 World Cup, in which you made your international debut.

Yeah, he was incredible at that World Cup. If he had played T20 cricket, he would have grown his skills even further and added greater variety. Even with the skills he had at that time, he would have been one of the outstanding fast bowlers in world cricket right now.

The T20 World Cup was Rahul Dravid’s last assignment as India’s coach.

He has been on the road a little while. He worked hard with the NCA for a number of years. That would have benefited Indian cricket hugely. And then he has done an excellent job with the national side, but it is no surprise, because in everything that he has taken on, he has always handled himself with grace, dignity and integrity.

Then you add his cricket knowledge, and his ability to connect and interact with his players and staff. I would imagine the Indian head coach position takes a lot out of you. I have played a similar role, and now I want to step into a different role where I can spend more time at home. I completely understand [why Dravid didn’t want to continue].

Talking of coaches, who have you been impressed by?

Oh, that’s quite a question! I think Duncan Fletcher did a good job with the teams that he coached. His knowledge and his attention to detail were excellent. We have spoken about Rahul and how I respect him. I think Peter Moores is a brilliant coach in a different way, with his energy, creativity and out of the box thinking. You know, it would be nice if he got an opportunity to express that in international cricket again.

I loved working with Graham Gooch. He has done all the jobs in English cricket, but he was an outstanding coach, in a number of ways. He worked as a batting coach with me and helped me tremendously.

I think Andrew McDonald is an outstanding coach. He is a little lower profile than some of the big names, like a Ricky Ponting. He might be a bit underrated for the outside world, but anyone that has ever had cricket conversations with him or worked with him, they would be rating him very highly. I think Australia is in good hands.

As a coach, you took England to the T20 World Cup victory in 2010. Then you made England the No. 1 Test nation, all the way from near the bottom.

That World Cup in the Caribbean was sensational. That is one of the best tours I have ever been on. We had a lot of fun partly because there was low expectation from us. We just changed the way we were doing things. We picked a very attacking team with a lot of variety in it.

We picked two brand new openers [Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb], with the express permission to attack with gay abandon. Which they did. They were backed up by Kevin Pietersen, who played like that anyway. And Paul Collingwood was a brand new captain. He brought in a lot of creativity and ideas from his IPL experience, which was really good for me. We brought in some innovations in our attack, with David Saker, who was a new bowling coach for us.

Helping England become the World No. 1 in Tests, for the first time ever, was also an amazing experience. That was an interesting journey, you know, setting the target and mapping our way towards that. It was a great challenge. I really enjoyed beating Australia in the Ashes three times. That is a very tough task out there. As was winning in India in 2012. I think it was a significant achievement. We had to try and get this bunch of England batsmen to deal with the Indian spinners in Indian conditions.

The England batters must have got some help from their head coach who had done rather well against the Indian spinners…

Yes, that gave me confidence about my own knowledge of those conditions and how to play in them. But ultimately batting is quite a personal thing. How you stay in long enough to score runs, how you defend confidently, and then how you can apply the pressure back onto the spinners, and how you deal with reverse swing. I had had success in India, it probably gave me more confidence as a coach to talk about that. But we had Graham Gooch as the batting coach. And we had Mushtaq Ahmed as our spin coach. So that was a significant advantage for us as well, having that knowledge in our dressing room.

The best batter and bowler you have come across?

I have to say Wasim Akram was the best bowler. He was amazing, with pace and guile, knowledge and variety. I loved watching Sachin Tendulkar play. And I watched him play a lot from behind the stumps. I respected him both as a player and as a bloke. I think he has handled himself amazingly well through all that stardom. I thought Steve Waugh was a competitor at a different level. More recently, Virat Kohli, with whom I enjoyed working at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, where I watched him up close. I have a lot of respect for him.

(This interview was facilitated by Sony Sports Network)

Navigating pitfalls

This photograph, taken at the former Glenmuckloch opencast coal mine site in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, captures the rough and tumble of qualifying at the Extreme E Hydro X Prix.

Extreme E — an FIA-sanctioned off-road racing series featuring electric SUVs — travels to remote parts of the world, chosen especially to raise awareness of climate change. The RMS St. Helena ship, which runs on low-sulphur-diesel, acts as a ‘floating paddock’, ferrying equipment and vehicles to different races to reduce carbon emissions compared to air freight. The Helena also reportedly doubles up as a research vessel, carrying scientists.

The Extreme E project, put together by Formula E founder Alejandro Agag and former driver Gil de Ferran in 2018-19, also aims to promote gender equality. All teams are required to have a male and a female driver who share equal racing duties.

The Dumfries and Galloway site, which challenges drivers with its rough, undulating terrain, is set to transform into a hydro-project and wind farm, providing renewable energy for the region.

Weekend

- Chasing storms, catching feelings

- Master of spices

- The language of violence

- Re-tyre in style

- This loony tune soars high

- Osgood Perkins’ rancid fever dream

- Pensive take on humanity’s most-feared creation

- An underwhelming sequel

- Akshay Kumar is on autopilot

Gautam Sunder

Actors Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos on their Twisters sequel, bonding on the sets over Charli XCX’s music, and what’s inside Powell’s “icon wisdom” journal

1 of 5 (Clockwise from below) Stills from Twisters; and Glen Powell holds his dog Brisket alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles. Melinda Sue Gordon and reuters Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin E

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One of Glen Powell’s most treasured possessions is what he calls his “icon wisdom” journal; a book he has had throughout his career in which he scribbles down the most important takeaways from the projects, filmmakers, and actors he has worked with.

Naturally, the journal is chock-full of wisdom from his Top Gun: Maverick co-star and now-friend, mentor and guide to everything magical in life: Tom Cruise. In an earlier interview, Powell revealed one of his favourite bits of advice from the superstar; Cruise does not just pick great roles, he picks great projects and then makes the roles great.

It is something Powell has been consciously trying to do since the $1.5 billion box-office success of Maverick (2022) changed his life overnight (not to mention being credited with reviving the theatrical rom-com with Anyone but You, and his incredibly slick turn in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man)and eventually led him to sign on for the upcoming Twisters, a standalone sequel to the 1996 blockbuster disaster epic.

Directed by Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, and also starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Fresh, Where the Crawdads Sing) and Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In The Heights), the film stars Powell as Tyler Owens, a brazen but charismatic storm-chasing social media star who crosses paths with meteorologist Kate Cooper (Edgar-Jones) and her colleague Javi (Ramos) who are testing a new tornado tracking system. As storm season converges upon central Oklahoma, the trio is caught in the fight of their lives as they seek to escape — and possibly try to tame — multiple unpredictable tornadoes that will destroy anything in their way.

Why Daisy was Type A

Much to the surprise of his Twisters co-stars, Powell winks and says that both of them are now part of his journal after shooting wrapped on the ambitious project.

“One thing that I took away from Daisy for my journal is the way she breaks down a character. She has this amazing process where she charts out the entire movie in a detailed manner, almost like a filmmaker. It really allows you to see the entire arc and temperature of different aspects of the movie. I’m not quite as Type A as Daisy, she really is the top student of the cast of Twisters (laughs). But it’s fantastic how she tackled her character in such a deliberate nature being part of a film where there’s so much happening on the effects and stunts front,” he remarks lightly.

Powell adds, “Anthony, on the other hand... he has this beautiful sense of play. Every single day, he approaches his job with such a sense of childlike wonder, brings his brother around everywhere and makes sure that people laugh on set.”

“As an actor, you sometimes forget that people are looking to you to guide the tone on set; Anthony has such a buoyant, infectious smile that everyone looks at him and instantly smiles too! Movie sets can be the most wonderful places on the planet, and Anthony wears that responsibility of keeping it so proudly, and reminding us of it,” he quips.

Much has been made of the chemistry between Powell and Edgar-Jones during the press tour (fans clearly still have not learnt from the brouhaha surrounding his equation with Sydney Sweeney during the Anyone but You promos...) which has only added to the anticipation surrounding the film.

A soundtrack for summer

But what helped them bond on set was Edgar-Jones’ impeccable taste in music as they spent long hours shooting inside cars on open landscapes, so much so that she became the resident DJ on set (her new nickname doing the rounds is DJ EJ); what were they listening to?

“Well, first of all, we all love theTwisters soundtrack in itself. It’s so good and stacked with incredible artists... almost like the Avengers of country music. The music is such a joyful, big part of the film and an integral part of storm-chasing for real. You’re in the car for hours and hours, and driving across very flat surfaces, so you need some form of entertainment to keep you going,” Daisy muses.

The Normal People star, who was recently spotted at the Glastonbury music festival with her friends, actors Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan and others, goes on, “My musical tastes are a real range; I love classics since I inherited all my parents’ vinyls when I was a kid. So I grew up listening to the soundtracks of their childhood, and they had great taste in music.. from Al Green to Pink Floyd. I love anything that has a funk and a beat, really. I even made these guys listen to Charli XCX since I’m really into club and dance music these days, and it’s brat summer! We were just doing the viral Apple dance earlier today...”

As with any sequel, there are tributes aplenty in Twisters, something all the actors, as fans of the original, are very excited about. “Some of the shots from the original Twister movie have been recreated in this one, along with other several little homages. For instance, Daisy’s character of Kate is reminiscent of who Bill Paxton played in the 1996 version — she’s reinvigorated and brought back into this world that she left after a devastating encounter — and even gets to also reenact one of his iconic dialogues,” says Powell, who is a self-confessed movie trivia buff.

“What I learnt from my time on Top Gun: Maverick is that when you’re making a franchise film, you have got to find elements of the original that you honour, but the new film has to exist on its own merit. You can’t justrely on nostalgia or tricks of the past. That’s where our director Lee Isaac Chung came in; he grew up in a part of the world around tornadoes and knows the community who live in such regions inside out. So we tried to honour the feeling of the original movie, the community of storm-chasers, and update this without being too derivative. And I think we have succeeded,” he grins.

Daisy is quick to chime in, “Also... the first Twister movie was among the first-ever titles to get a release on DVD after its theatrical run. During the shoot, Bill used to give weather reports at the beginning of every filming day!”

How Steven Spielberg

batted for Anthony

For stage actor and singer Ramos, one of the most memorable moments during his Twisters experience was when executive producerSteven Spielberg asked him not to use a Southern accent for his role; it made the actor feel that, “it was possible for a kid from the hood to go to study meteorology, be this brilliant meteorologist and storm chaser. This is something that a kid like me could do.”

Ramos says that he was initially prepared to do the Southern accent. “But after I heard that Spielberg wanted me to retain my dialect, I was really grateful. I sound like a Puerto Rican dude from Bushwick in Brooklyn, and I’ve never heard anyone with that sort of a dialect play a scientist in a movie... much less one of this scale. Of course, playing Javi needed some work, but to be him with this kind of vernacular and vocabulary was really cool. It was one less thing to worry about!”

Twisters is now in theatres

Gargi Guha

Chef Gaspar Fernandes on his restaurant Gaspar’s bagging a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and why he is the Goan culinary ambassador

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2 of 4 (Clockwise from right) A snapshot of Gaspar’s; coconut jaggery with salted coconut caramel; strawberries and milk; Chef Gaspar Fernandes. Special ArrangementRobertas Daskevicius

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When I met Chef Gaspar Fernandes at a cocktail evening when he was visiting Goa, I was transfixed with his food-centric stories. All the way from a neighbourhood in Merces, Goa, to his eponymous restaurant, Gaspar’s in Vilnius, Lithuania, this culinary savant has been crafting magic, one spice at a time.

“There is some form of spice in every dish we serve, and that’s how we infuse the Goan touch,” he told me. “Right from the restaurant’s beloved, My Mum’s Curry, a rendition of cafreal mix using black cod tail in season, to the fragrant black cardamom flan with kesar mango mousse to end a meal.”

Gaspar’s was rated No. 1 in the 30 Best Restaurants in Lithuania list for 2023, and from then, the momentum was on. But it was a definitive homerun in June this year when Lithuania’s First Michelin Guide was unveiled and the restaurant bagged a coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand.

“You see, we are a small family run enterprise, with just 14 staff members (four from India) and we put in a lot of heart in every aspect of the business. This was in no measure, a small win,” he says over a call from Vilnius. His wife Krystina, who manages the front of house operations, is totally in tandem with Gaspar’s vision. After all, the start of the restaurant, way back in 2015, was born out of their romance and the pursuit of it, which brough Gaspar all the way from the United Kingdom to Vilnius. “We started the place after emptying out our purses. But there was no cutting corners. Everything had to be of the highest possible quality,” says Gaspar.

Gaspar’s is a cosy dining establishment with just 35 covers, but the quiet elegance is unmistakable. There is brunch on Sundays, and guests can enjoy an al fresco meal during the summer months.

Adjoining the restaurant is a small green patch of less than 25 square metres, tended lovingly by Krystina, where pretty, edible flowers, five different kinds of mint, micro greens, and beans lend themselves to an imaginative and seasonal menu.

The menu is tight and concise, inspired by local produce and a ‘zero kilometre’ approach of sourcing from nearby. Like the coffee from Emanuelis (Crooked Nose & Coffee Stories) and herbs from Evaldas’ farm. His naan is made from whole wheat from the nearby Zelbu family farm using a special technique. Dishes like the grilled Goan spiced mackerel are local favourites and embody his simple but clever cooking style,

Gaspar, who honed his skills at London’s Le Cordon Bleu and built a strong base in the creative precision of pastry, says he was driven by his sweet tooth. His earliest food memory was from his home in Goa, where, he would sneak into the kitchen at the age of seven to rustle up his own version of sheera, out of semolina, sugar and milk. Given the tradition of Goa’s afternoon siesta, his mother would be sleeping and he had the kitchen to himself to experiment.

Gaspar’s desserts are meticulously crafted, and always feature spice. His most beautiful work of art, featured as the masthead on the Michelin announcement of Lithuanian restaurants, is inspired by the strawberry milk, a summer treat that kids in Lithuania love, which is spooned like a soup, and served with a sweet bun. Gaspar’s is an audacious take, with a saffron cream, a butter cookie crafted into a flower, and a small cloud of frothy milk, perfumed with cardamon. Named simply Strawberries and Milk, this seasonal delight is available from May until September.

So, who are guests of Gaspar’s Restoranas, I ask. Repeat clientele comprises about 40%, he tells me, many of whom do not even look at the menu anymore, but simply leave it to the chef. It is safe to say that Gaspar’s has made quite an impression among locals and expats in Lithuania’s capital. Not surprising, since the menu does take into consideration the preferences of the local palate, while gently introducing the nuances of spice.

“Lithuanians love smoky undertones, especially during the winters, and they have a certain fondness for chargrilled and smoked fishlike carp, eel or perch,” shares Gaspar. Not surprisingly, chargrilled iberico pork chops with a vindaloo spice kick is a winning dish on the menu.

Gaspar’s love affair with spices has drawn in the city’s top business people, expats, consular corps and socialites to form a Spicy Food Lovers’ Club, which started in 2017. The club convenes once in two to three months to partake of a seven to eight course gourmet meal, crafted by the man himself. The meal is paired with fine wines and incorporates some premium ingredients like langoustine or a specially procured wagyu beef.

Gaspar is a Goan culinary ambassador, and says it is with pride that he serves his cuisine to the wider world. His style is informed by his heritage and the cooking styles of his mother and grandfather, a chef. His close-knit chain of local producers and suppliers are all part of his philosophy to create a harmonious ecosystem.

Shilajit Mitra

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2 of 2 (Left) A still from Kill; (below) Nikhil Nagesh Bhat. special arrangement

Midway through my conversation with Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, the Kill director relates a story of growing up in ordinary middle-class Patna. “There was a dacoit who used to visit my locality,” he begins, like someone recalling an avuncular travelling salesman bringing exotic toys. “We kids used to play cricket and he would arrive with three truck-loads of people bearing 50 rifles. And he would politely climb down and ask us, “Can I bat?’”

This thrilling memory — recounted with evident fondness and time-tempered wisdom by Bhat — is of a piece with Kill, the recently-released cracking Hindi action film that features debutant Lakshya as an NSG commando pounding dacoits on an express train.

Excerpts from an interview...

Q: Kill premiered in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and also showed at Tribeca earlier this year. A festival audience, however, is different from the one lapping up the film — and its excessive violence — in Indian theatres.

A:Different people react differently to movie violence. I was serious from the start that I did not want to celebrate violence. Celebrating violence is almost like you are supporting violence. Even in my last film, Apurva (2023), I have shown violence in such a way that... you cannot escape its consequences. In Kill, the consequences of violence are much more gruesome than the reasons prompting it. There’s only pain and loss on both sides.

Q:Oftentimes our thirst for catharsis, for bloody spectacle, can override the context.

A: As a society, we have a lot of pent-up anger. Rage and anger are an integral part of our collective psyche. But a film like Kill, which at every moment reminds you that violence is not pretty, that it has consequences, is bound to make you uncomfortable. I went to theatres in Mumbai like Juhu PVR and Fun Republic. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and chants when Amrit (Lakshya) was meting out his justice. But I also met people who told me they didn’t want to see what was happening, but needed to follow the story through till the end.

Q:You have portrayed the dacoits in the film as ordinary bumkins who supplement their meagre incomes by looting train cars. It makes a larger comment about the correlation between crime and unemployment in India.

A:During the COVID-19 pandemic, crimes increased in the nation. I read a news article that said that between 2021-2022, there were 699 robberies and thefts attempted on the Indian Railways. Out of which 14 to 18 were big robberies. So yes, it is a commentary on that. At the same time, I did not intend to preach and wanted to make my points cinematically.

In the 1970s, we had those films about the working class versus the upper class—the babu class. The themes of economic disparity and class anger were really strong in our cinema. That in fact led to the birth of the Angry Young Man embodied by Amitabh Bachchan, who was a dockworker turning to crime in Deewaar.

The strangest thing to realise is that this is not a reality that’s unique to India. The fact that people in the US or Saudi Arabia, or Spain or Mexico are experiencing the same feelings speaks volumes of the social makeup and disparity prevalent in the world.

Q:There is a family of passengers in the film who get embroiled in the tragedy. Were you conscious of its import in the current political atmosphere?

A:I was. At the end of the day, we are all children of the same country. We are all the same people. When crisis strikes, we come together. An Indian train is the perfect reflection of a society where people from different religions, castes and sects travel together. There is a scene where a character says something to the effect of, “We should have done something earlier... but we chose to ignore.” It talks of the collective spirit and the need to take action when we see something wrong happening to others.

Q: What were your biggest cinematic influences for Kill?

A: One of my first reference points was actually Aliens (1986), which is really about two mothers protecting their turf. Because the story is narrated from Ripley’s point-of-view, we root for her, yet the emotional pull is felt on both sides. I wanted a similar feeling for Amrit and the dacoits.

Re-tyre

Amarjot Kaur

Delhi-based brand Graine’s new collection features upcycled tyre and metal waste fused with traditional chikankari and badla work to create modern evening-wear ensembles

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2 of 2 Mountain fold asymmetric dress , distressed seams Married to a rubber band

In one of its recent reports, the National Green Tribunal revealed that close to 2.75 lakh tyres are discarded in India every day. While more companies are trying to recycle tyres, from repurposing them as footwear to using them for building roads with Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen, the sustainable-clothing industry is not too far behind.

Graine, a Delhi-based brand, started its tryst with upcycling rubber-tyre waste in 2018, when it launched its first Autumn-Winter collection, Run-of-the-Mill. “In Delhi and NCR, we started picking up tyres from small vendors at bastis, garages, cycle puncture shops and Kathputli Colony,” says Mannat Sethi, who co-founded the brand with Harshna Kandhari.

The designers, both Elle graduates 2021, are now extending their experiments with waste tyres to their new summer edit Palate Cleanser. The capsule also marries embellished pieces — made from waste metal hardware (chains, blade units and circle stoppers) — with nylon mesh and Swarovski crystals.

“The collection features an element of repurposing tyre tubes in selective looks. This time, we have extended our craft to creating bags bejewelled with metal and glass beads,” shares Harshna.

How to sustain

The process of upcycling rubber tyres starts with dipping them in water for three days and then bathing them in kerosene to clean the rubber. They are then beaten with a hammer and prepared for needles: to be stitched and embroidered.

“This is followed by a flattening process, where tyres are pressed under fabric with a heavy iron. We then do embossing where heat setting stamps are used. The rubber is then ready to be married with the textile,” Harshna explains, “We marry the upcycled process with textiles which we create in-house using gota and other suitable fabrics, like Chanderi and cotton.”

Palate Cleanser encapsulates all of the techniques we have used over the years and it has been created over a month-and-a-half,” adds Mannat. She observes that the market may take a while to accept the radical shift. “People are still adjusting to wearing dresses made from rubber and metal waste. In our collection, you will find the traditional bakhiya stitch of Chikankari sitting on a classic cut shirt or the gota of Anaarkali borders on a pleated skirt or a bomber jacket,” she says.

With a total of six collections under its belt, Graine won the Generation Next title at the Lakme Fashion Week in 2020 when it showcased its runway collection in Mumbai and the Helsinki Fashion Award for Sustainability in 2019 at The Helsinki Fashion Week.

It specialises in giving a contemporary spin to the bakhiya and badla work. “Having worked with the Mijwan Welfare Society of Lucknow, we did some extensive projects under the leadership of actor Shabana Azmi. The design and exploration of Chikankari and questions around its relevance in today’s design language initiated from our communications and interactions with artisans,” Mannat concludes.

Palate Cleanser starts at ₹11,000 on graineworld.com

This loony tune soars high

Mini Anthikad Chhibber

This 1960s-set rom-com is glorious fun thanks to the sizzling chemistry and timing of the leads and an extreme, outlandish turn by Woody Harrelson

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The lyrics of Bob Dylan’s ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ is a glittering quilt of diamond-sharp phrases, including, “He not busy being born is busy dying,” “Money doesn’t talk, it swears,” and “Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.”

Greg Berlanti’s Fly Me to the Moon, brings to mind other lines from the 1965 masterpiece, “Advertising signs they con/ You into thinking you’re the one/ That can do what’s never been done/ That can win what’s never been won/ Meantime life outside goes on/ All around you.”

While you might feel it is a stretch to set the screwball romantic comedy against the lyrics of a Nobel Laureate, it does work when you see Scarlett Johansson as Kelly Jones tip-tapping on her high heels in the corridors of power bedazzling the silly suits with one outrageous scam after another till she meets one that just might be too big even for her.

At the height of space race, in the 1960s, as the USSR zooms ahead, NASA is trying to make good on President Kennedy’s promise of putting a man on the moon before the decade is over. Apollo 11 is to be the first manned spaceflight to the moon. Headed by Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), it is a race against time. With the honeymoon period over and the war in Vietnam, the space programme is understaffed and underfunded.

That is when a Washington fixer, Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) decides to hire Kelly to sell the moon to the world. Kelly and her assistant, Ruby (Anna Garcia) are soon on their way to Cape Canaveral to do just that.

When Cole says his people are too weird and too busy to give interviews, Kelly hires actors who can, including one for Cole, who she tells to “up the charisma!” A meal at a diner gives Kelly the bright idea to get the big corporates on the gravy train. When Cole is shocked at having to turn the project into a giant billboard in space, Kelly tells him some home truths and soon the astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Colin Woodell), Michael Collins (Christian Zuber) and Neil Armstrong (Nick Dillenburg) are photographed with Omega watches, with other product placements peppering the narrative.

All goes according to plan including schmoozing with senators, and a camera to record footage of the moon landing to be beamed live into every living room across the world. Moe wants one more thing from Kelly and that is a plan B — a fake moon landing in case the real one fails.

Despite serious reservations, Kelly gets the temperamental ad film director Lance (Jim Rash) to do the job. There is a lot of fun to be had with the fake moon-landing with Kelly even muttering she should “have got Kubrick” referencing the conspiracy theory of the 2001: A Space Odyssey director having filmed a fake moon landing.

Johansson and Tatum brings their considerable talents to the table with Donald Elise Watkins and Noah Robbins as engineers on the project and Ray Romano as Cole’s best friend and second in command, Henry Smalls, giving pitch-perfect support. Harrelson is on another level as the mysterious Moe. Though long for a rom-com at over two hours, there is enough meat on Fly Me to the Moon to feel the time slip by smooth as the jazz that plays in the background. Incidentally Kelly’s suits and accessories are to die for, and there is a black cat called Mischief who far from being bad luck, conclusively proves what is real and what is fake at the opportune moment.

Fly Me to the Moon is currently

running in theatres

Osgood Perkins’ rancid fever dream

Ayaan Paul Chowdhury

Neon’s relentless marketing campaign for Osgood Perkins’ fourth feature successfully wove tall tales that painted it as a descent into unspeakable terror, with social media teasers and cryptic trailers suggesting a full-blown fright fest. But as with any good horror story, there is more beneath the surface. Far from the gore-drenched scream-fest the publicity machine has hinted at, Longlegsis a masterclass in subtlety. It is a film that does not lunge at you with desperate thrills but rather oozes into your subconscious, settling there like a sinister squatter you cannot evict. Perkins’ direction weaves a web of atmospheric dread, making the real horror not what you hear or see, but what feels like gradually peeling your own nails off bit by bit.

The plot seems straightforward enough. An FBI agent is tasked with investigating a series of gruesome family murders spanning decades, all marked by cryptic notes signed “Longlegs.” The deeper she digs, the more tangled the web becomes. The sense of impending doom is excruciating, and Perkins ensures that it never lets up.

Longlegs is a brooding descent into a Satanic fever dream. It dabbles less in the conventions of jumpscare-ridden terror and more a slow-burning, dreadful march into the abyss — a sensation only accentuated by a campy, nightmare performance from a chameleonic Nicholas Cage.

The film is a journey into the twisted psyche of Nic Cage’s creepy titular reprobate. Sporting a whiny voice, long mousy blond hair, and a face slathered in pale makeup and prosthesis, he is first introduced in a 1974 prologue that sets the stage for the terror to come, with Cage having effortlessly transformed himself into an androgynous figure of unearthly legend. His seasoned eccentricities seem to have funneled themselves into creating a character who could make Pennywise seem like a tame birthday clown. The performance is the kind of unsettling that makes you want to scrub your brain clean after watching.

Longlegs is often seen in half-light, his grotesque features only partially revealed, leaving much to the imagination. When his full visage is finally exposed, it is a jarring payoff that feels inevitable and shockingly fresh. Cage’s portrayal is a terrifying tour de force, blending elements of Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill with a level of unhinged that’s characteristically Nic Cage.

Perkins’ builds the film’s tension with delicious precision; every scene, every frame, calibrated to elicit maximum discomfort. He smartly implies more than he shows, allowing the audience’s imagination to fill in the horrific blanks making Longlegs feel like a lucid, waking nightmare.

The film’s visuals, courtesy of cinematographer Andres Arochi Tinajero, are a study in contrasts, with its underlit scenes, ominous wides and suffocating 4:3 flashbacks trapping us and its characters in a perpetual state of unease. The complementing sound design by Eugenio Battaglia and the disconcerting score by Zilgi gnaw at your very soul, creating a sonic ordeal that leaves a lasting, sinister spell.

The film’s themes seemingly hit close to home for Perkins, whose family history is steeped in its own dark secrets. The filmmaker’s macabre lineage, as the child of closeted-gay Psycho star Anthony Perkins, and Berry Berensen (who died in theSeptember 11 attacksas a passenger onthe first plane that struck the World Trade Center) seems to permeate his twisted vision on familial trauma.

For those expecting to cower in their seats at the “scariest film of the decade,” it is my civic duty to temper your expectations: Longlegs will probably not meet the inflated legend that preceded it. Instead, what it delivers is a remarkably unsettling experience, an exquisite lesson in atmospheric horror. This film isn’t content with just scaring you; it exists solely to haunt your psyche, to weave itself into the crevices of your mind, lingering long after the credits roll in reverse, as if descending into the inferno itself.

Longlegs is currently running in theatres

Pensive take on humanity’s most-feared creation

Bhuvanesh Chandar

Of all the countless Hollywood titles that have taken a crack on this fascinating sub-genre of sci-fi, Apple TV+’s latest series Sunny might just come on top as one with the most remarkable look at the complexities between humanity and its most feared creation: robots, a.k.a artificial intelligence.

Quite plot-heavy, Sunny boasts one too many ideas crammed into ten 40-minute episodes, though impressively managing to leave no stone unturned. When it begins, however, it poses a no-frills premise that you might hesitate to give in: There’s a grief-stricken protagonist, living in a world they have given up on, and a goody-two-shoes robot that is advanced beyond measure rises. But just with its incredible pilot episode, Katie Robbins’ series sets up a riveting storyline and an addictive atmosphere.

We are first told of all that goes through the mind of Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones), a perpetually irritated, robot-phobic, grief-stricken American woman in Kyoto, Japan, whose life was upended when she lost her husband, Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima), and son, Zen, in a tragic plane crash. She navigates crushing grief, infuriating pity parties, continuing anxieties of being an outsider, her dyslexia requiring an ear device to live-translate Japanese, and her nagging, control freak of a mother-in-law, Noriko (Judy Ongg).

As if her plate could not get any fuller, in an eerie turn of events, a colleague of her husband brings her a home-bot, Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura), whom he says her late husband — who had claimed to work at the refrigerators department — “built and left for her.” This sets Suzie on a mission of no return, in which she understands her loved one posthumously, strikes the unlikeliest of bonds with a robot, and unravels a bigger conspiracy fronted by the yakuza themselves.

A mark of a good sci-fi story, Sunny has terrific writing of the human characters — we have Mixxy (Annie the Clumsy), an intriguing sidekick who may or may not have a crush on Suzie; Noriko, who deals with her grief in a peculiar way; and the terrifying Hime (Yukiko Ehara), a blonde-haired, sweet-voiced yakuza heir who puppets Suzie and Sunny in a game of deceit. However, what stands out is how the titular robot gets humanized.

The writing humanises these robots to the extent you begin to care for Sunny deeply, especially with innumerable threats lurking around the corner. The first few episodes are peppered with moments where Sunny expresses alarmingly real emotions. We also anticipate an eerily advanced and seemingly sentient robot like her to be the killer robot, which was glimpsed in the opening scene of the series. Treading on this thin grey line ensures we look beyond Sunny’s metal exterior.

As the story grows, the sequences that most leave an imprint on you are the ones featuring Suzie, Masa and Sunny that juxtapose timelines and memories; here, flashbacks become dreams become nightmares, often making you question fact from fiction, as you witness Suzie descend an inch lower into paranoia and the deeper pits of grief.

Of course, there are blimps on the road, like how it seems as if the series didn’t have a lot to say in a couple of filler episodes in the middle. Or how vaguely the yakuza storyline is written. But in retrospect, these niggles disappear. With futuristic robots, outstanding performances, pristine set designs, and Hollywood’s big production sensibilities meeting stunning Japanese locales, Sunny is truly top-tier television that calls for a sequel.

Sunny is currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes release weekly every Wednesday.

An underwhelming sequel

Gopinath Rajendran

Most of the ideas that usually work in Shankar’s films fall flat in Kamal Haasan-led Indian 2, thanks to a disengaging plot

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After making his debut with the Robin Hood-esque Gentleman and mounting a simple love story on a complex political backdrop with his sophomore film Kadhalan, director Shankar dialled it up to eleven with his third film, Indian. Apart from the trope of a former freedom fighter taking up arms against those decimating his country, the poignant backstory gave the titular hero a reason to turn vigilante, a cause worth sacrificing even his own son. This sense of emotional turmoil the character had and the empathy it rightfully extracted from us are just some of the many crucial elements that the sequel Indian 2 misses.

Senapathy (Kamal Haasan), who reaches Hong Kong at the end of Indian, is now in Taiwan, the land where his idol Subhas Chandra Bose died. While those who waited for Bose’s return never got to see that, a bunch of YouTubers, disillusioned by corruption, start a trend #ComeBackIndian on social media causing the veteran to return to his homeland. While everyone expects him to serve justice with his belt buckle knife, he first asks the country’s youngsters to call out the corrupt folks in their own households because... cleaning starts at home.

Probably the biggest takeaway of Indian 2 is how the sequel tries to shed light on the people behind corruption and the aftermath of ratting out on those near and dear; lives are lost and families are broken. The very idea of focussing on the aftermath of being straight as an arrow, something which Shankar toyed with the death of Senapathy’s daughter in the first part, makes for an endearing ethical dilemma that our ‘Indian’ and ‘Indians’ who count on him had to encounter. But this idea, unlike Senapathy’s knife, barely scratches the surface.

What we are left with are templates that we once used to love in Shankar’s films — grand sets, songs in exotic locales, and huge action set pieces, as well as tropes we long-hoped the veteran would let go of. Cringed at the gross portrayal of the trans makeup artist from I? There’s an unnecessarily problematic scene here where our hero, with his varma kalai, makes a womaniser/rich man act effeminate. Remember the “kuppathu porikki pasanga” stereotype from Mudhalvan? Now they’re apparently youngsters with bright-coloured hair hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet and abusing people online. Ever accessed the government’s welfare schemes, dubbed freebies? Well, according to the film, you should be ashamed of being bribed to overlook substandard governance.

Unlike Indian, the sequel takes the war against corruption across the country. You know the film isn’t fooling around when the smoking and drinking statutory warnings are replaced with a line that goes, “Corruption causes cancer to the nation”. While the film showcases a rogues’ gallery from different states— indulging in everything from granite scams to recruitment scams — none of the punishments meted out to them feel as cathartic as the ones we saw in the original film. The fact that they range from singing non-stop till they drop dead or running like a horse (complete with neighing noises, I kid you not) till they die of exhaustion isn’t exactly as menacing as what Shankar does with villains in his older films.

Apart from Kamal, it is Siddharth along with his gang of friends, played by Priya Bhavani Shankar, Jagan and Rishikanth, who get most of the screen-time, but their trials and tribulations never hit us hard, unlike what the character of Manorama goes through in Indian. The fact that all it takes is one worldwide trending hashtag, #ComeBackIndian, for Senapathy to end his vanavaas and come to India, and another trend #GoBackIndian for the whole nation to vouch against our hero, feels extremely artificial.

What hurts the most are two aspects: how the grandeur Shankar is known for falls like a house of cards when not backed with a sturdy plot and how the very character of Senapathy is altered to make the umpteen theories that floated online before the film’s release sound better.

A brilliant Krishnaswamy (Nedumudi Venu) proved to be a worthy enemy to Senapathy in the original film. But in Indian 2, his son Pramod (Bobby Simha) is just another typical Tamil film cop primarily used by Senapathy to call out nepotism similar to varisu arasiyal. Similarly, SJ Suryah, who we assume is the main antagonist in the next sequel, appears merely for seconds just like other veterans like Brahmanandam. Even the dialogues don’t work in favour of the film; we are attacked with lines like ‘idhu karumam illa, varumam’ and ‘soththu kaga oduna nee ippo death kaga odu’.

Finally, you know a film is in deep trouble these days when even Anirudh can’t salvage it with his score. Interestingly, Indian 2 reuses a lot of AR Rahman’s original score; not only does it work brilliantly, but also makes for some of the best moments in the film.

And speaking of earlier outings, the references to Shankar and Kamal’s previous works, especially Indian, are aplenty, including a homage of sorts to Goundamani and Senthil. But despite a barrage of ideas that usually work wonders in Shankar’s projects, most of them fall flat thanks to an uninteresting treatment that stretches the sequel to two films. A glimpse at the end teases what’s in store in Indian 3.... this 140-odd-second clip delivers what the 180-minute film couldn’t. Banking on the nostalgic value of its predecessor and a visibly intriguing sequel that’s coming up next year, Indian 2 struggles to be relevant and entertaining. More than #ComeBackIndian, we hope Indian 3 will be a comeback for the veteran filmmaker and the legendary actor.

Indian 2 is currently running in theatres

Akshay Kumar is on autopilot

Anuj Kumar

At a time when audiences are embracing pan-Indian films rooted in red soil, it feels strange that there is still a need for mounting a Sarfira. A remake of Suriya’s popular Tamil film Soorarai Pottru, Sarfira suffers because it loses some of its soul in transporting its take-off point from Madurai to a more generic Maharashtra.

Old timers would remember how Jeetendra revived his career out of remakes in the 1980s. With Akshay, the generational loss is getting increasingly magnified because the originals are easily available for comparison, not just for critics but for common audiences as well.

What saves Sarfira from becoming a Cuttputlli is writer-director Sudha Kongara’s storytelling which makes the emotional core of the film work across languages.

Drawing from Gopinath’s book Simply Fly, she along with co-writers Shalini Ushadevi and Pooja Tolani has woven a compelling story around the churn in the aviation sector at the turn of the millennium.

In a thinly veiled screenplay, the film refers to how the idea of a low-cost carrier challenged the monopoly of Jet Airways, the ambition of Kingfisher Airlines, and talks of the red-tapism that kept even Ratan Tata waiting. Gopinath gave wings to the common Indian’s aspirations. He realised ahead of market leaders that air travel is no longer a luxury but a necessity for the new Indian on the move.

In the realm of fiction, Veer (Akshay) has grown up in a village where electricity has come after years of petition and prayer. Restless for change, he makes a career in the Air Force but his life gets a new meaning when he could not see his school teacher father, with whom he had an ideological tiff, in his last moments. He plans a low-cost airline but Paresh Goswami (Paresh Rawal), the big fish in the aviation market, does not want him to have a share of the pie. He creates obstacles in Veer’s path and Sudha ensures that not all of them are predictable.

Well-paced and smartly edited, the episodic screenplay, dotted with Veer’s equal relationship with his entrepreneur wife Rani (Radhika Madan) and a strong mother (Seema Biswas), ensures 155 minutes don’t feel like a long time in a chair. Cast in the Pataakha mould, Radhika merges into the Marathi milieu better than Akshay but we miss the natural appeal of Aparna Balamurali that made the feminist sparks feel realistic. Her unalloyed intimacy with Suriya was the highlight of the Tamil version.

Similarly, the social texture of the story also gets diluted in the remake. Maran’s socialist father had more socio-political heft than the emotional swell created by Veer’s father and mother.

The different looks that Suriya donned to portray different periods felt organic but with Akshay the layers in storytelling get ironed out. Of course, he is sincere but these days his sincerity feels more like that of a punctual factory worker who has put the machine on auto mode.

Sarfira is currently running in theatres

Table of Contents

The Hindu

National

Microsoft update flaw triggers worldwide chaos

Accepting nomination, Trump lays out populist agenda

Putting out to sea

Prison set on fire as anti-quota protests in Bangladesh escalate

‘EPFO’s IT systems are dysfunctional, crash-prone’

Situation in Bangladesh an ‘internal matter’, says MEA

Police vs police

Railways grants 42-day special casual leave for organ donors

PM is ‘lying’ about 8 crore new jobs and rubbing salt into wounds of youth: Cong.

Seeking help from Centre to evacuate students: Assam CM

SC to hear plea to probe ‘quid pro quo’ via electoral bonds

‘Only Nirmala has to resign in connection with Valmiki scam’

HC stays Khan’s move for V-C selection panel

ED attaches properties belonging to M3M India

Voters will deliver strong rebuke to BJP: Venugopal

Glitch in software update may have triggered global Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage: experts

UPSC lodges criminal case against Puja Khedkar for forgery

Ex-Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra is new Ambassador to U.S.

Fast filling up

Karnataka HC issues notice to power supply companies on electrocution of elephants

U.P. Deputy CM hits out at Akhilesh over his ‘monsoon offer’

Naidu outlines his vision for ‘Viksit Andhra Pradesh-2047’

Four-year-old child dies of suspected H1N1 in Kochi

UPSC Chairperson Manoj Soni quits 5 years before completion of tenure

CBI arrests first-year MBBS student from Ranchi in NEET case

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Unacademy and The Hindu to host UPSC Summit 2024

3,000 Army troops, 500 special forces deployed in Jammu

Rama’s first battle

U.P. train accident: toll rises to four, number of injured at 31

Interfaith couple get protection under UCC

Congress is a political parasite, says BJP president

Navy and Army chiefs receive Param Vishisht Seva Medals

Regional

Now, Kanwar Yatra order applies to entire route in U.P., all of Uttarakhand

Strict measures implemented to ensure communal harmony during Nuh yatra

Muslim kanwar makers disheartened by escalating row over annual yatra

Differences within NDA alliance over ‘nameplate’ diktat for eateries in U.P.

AAP faces heat in Punjab, Haryana over Mann declining to comment on construction of SYL canal

Shivaji’s iconic wagh nakh on display at Satara Museum

Jamiat seeks immediate withdrawal of yatra order

‘Kejriwal’s guarantees’ for Haryana to be launched today

A long journey to change

A behind-the-scenes view of Kerala’s gender-sensitive textbooks

When a home is ‘enemy property’

Edit

Living in denial about unemployment

The promise of parametric insurance

letters to the editor

Wrongheaded policy

Trump season

‘Kaveri could have been anyone’s mother’

Business

The steam engine of today: elevating India’s capital goods for a global electronics revolution

India plans to enter into carbon crediting mechanism with Japan

‘EPFO’s IT systems are dysfunctional and crash-prone’

Agriculture exports slide 3% to $5.88 bn in Q1 FY25

RIL Q1 PAT declines 4% to ₹17,448 crore

Wipro Q1 net rises 4.6%, revenue slides 4%

Paytm parent’s April-June quarter loss widens to ₹840 cr.

Tata Motors introduces sport utility coupe Curvv

Power OTC platform New Age to unveil new products in FY25

Foreign

Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory ‘illegal’, says UN top court

All eyes on election date in Sri Lanka amid concern over Bill

United stand

Drone strike by Houthi rebels kills one in Tel Aviv

Iran capable of producing fissile material in 'one or two weeks': Blinken

40 migrants dead after boat catches fire off Haiti

Vietnam Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, the country’s most powerful leader, dies at age 80

Thousands protest against military operation in Pakistan

Russia seeks an 18-year sentence for US reporter as his espionage trial concludes

Order restored in the UK city of Leeds after overnight unrest

U.S. panel on Afghan war holds first public hearing

Trump family influences, reshapes Republican Party in its own image

Zelenskyy urges Britain to help Kyiv strike deeper inside Russia

Safe harbour

In a key political meeting, Beijing vows to ease local government debt woes

Obama’s dilemma: balancing loyalty and Biden opposition

Kyrgyzstan brings back families of IS militants

Sports

India starts title defence with a thumping win over Pakistan

Inductees Paes and Amritraj thrilled with the Hall of Fame reconnect

Centurion Hodge and Athanaze lead West Indies’ fightback

Lowry keeps his cool to stay ahead, Scheffler moves into contention

Pogacar closes on Tour de France triumph with stage 19 win

Nepal breezes past UAE in Women’s Asia Cup T20 opener

Nadal reaches the Bastad Open semifinals after a marathon win

Suryakumar’s childhood coach expresses joy over captaincy news

scoreboard

Shining a light on the athlete’s eternal battle against Father Time

STACKING UP

‘Bumrah is just different gravy, isn’t he? In white-ball cricket, he is a class apart’

Navigating pitfalls

Weekend

Chasing storms, catching feelings

Master of spices

The language of violence

Re-tyre in style

This loony tune soars high

Osgood Perkins’ rancid fever dream

Pensive take on humanity’s most-feared creation

An underwhelming sequel

Akshay Kumar is on autopilot