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Sep 21, 2026, 09:45 AM
Iran Rapidly Rebuilding Taleghan 2 Facility Amid Nuclear Concerns

Iran Rapidly Rebuilding Taleghan 2 Facility Amid Nuclear Concerns

New satellite imagery suggests Iran is rapidly rebuilding the Taleghan 2 facility inside the Parchin military complex, a site long associated with allegations of past nuclear weapons-related research. The images, captured by Vantor on September 13 and analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), show heavy construction activity at the damaged facility. A large tarp appears to cover the structure, while cranes, bulldozers, concrete mixers, dump trucks and concrete pumps operate around the site. The development does not, by itself, establish that Iran is currently conducting nuclear weapons work at Taleghan 2. But the facility’s history, repeated Israeli strikes and the apparent effort to rebuild and further harden it have renewed questions about Tehran’s intentions. Taleghan 2 is located within the sprawling Parchin military complex, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Tehran. According to an assessment by the Institute for Science and International Security, satellite imagery from September 13 shows reconstruction moving at a significantly faster pace than earlier this year. A large covering has been erected over the damaged underground structure. The tarp appears to conceal construction activity from overhead satellite imagery and aerial reconnaissance. The surrounding site also shows extensive use of heavy construction equipment, including: The institute said a new concrete apron has been built along the sides of the facility, adding another layer of protection around the structure. The imagery therefore appears to show more than simple debris removal. It indicates an organized effort to restore and reinforce a facility that has already been targeted multiple times. The significance of Taleghan 2 comes largely from its history. The facility has been associated with Iran’s former Amad nuclear weapons program, which Western intelligence agencies have described as an effort to develop the capability to build a nuclear weapon. A 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate assessed with high confidence that Iranian military entities had been working under government direction on nuclear weapons development before Tehran halted the program in 2003. The International Atomic Energy Agency has separately documented activities under Iran’s AMAD Plan involving areas including high explosives and work related to the possible re-engineering of a missile re-entry vehicle. That history is why construction at Taleghan 2 attracts particular attention. However, it is important to distinguish between historical evidence and what satellite imagery can establish today. The current images demonstrate construction and fortification activity, but they do not reveal with certainty what equipment will eventually be installed inside the rebuilt structure. Taleghan 2 has been struck repeatedly. Israel attacked the facility in October 2024. Iran subsequently began rebuilding it in 2025, according to satellite imagery analyzed by ISIS. During that reconstruction, analysts observed the installation of a large cylindrical structure inside the facility. ISIS assessed that it could have been a high-explosive containment vessel potentially suitable for experiments related to nuclear weapons development. The facility was then struck again by Israel in March 2026. Satellite images taken after the March attack showed three large penetration points through the roof of the hardened structure. According to the ISIS assessment, the strikes penetrated the section where the suspected high-explosive containment vessel had been located. The institute concluded that the strikes likely destroyed the vessel and caused extensive damage to the building’s internal structure. Repair work reportedly began again in June 2026. Early activity involved clearing debris and covering the penetration holes created by the bunker-busting weapons. Later imagery showed more permanent concrete reinforcement being added around the damaged areas. The September imagery points to a much larger reconstruction effort. The sequence is significant: March 2026: Israeli strikes heavily damage Taleghan 2. June 2026: Iran begins repair work and covers the strike-related penetration holes. Following months: Construction expands to include additional concrete reinforcement. September 13, 2026: Heavy construction activity is visible around the site, with additional protective structures and a large tarp covering the facility. The repeated reconstruction suggests that Tehran considers the facility important enough to restore despite the possibility of another attack. The new construction appears to have a defensive purpose. The facility is underground and has already been targeted by bunker-busting weapons. Additional concrete structures could make the site more resistant to future aerial attacks. The construction is notable because it goes beyond simply repairing visible strike damage. Reinforcement around the facility could provide additional structural protection against blasts. However, satellite imagery cannot establish the precise engineering purpose of every new structure. It also cannot independently determine whether the additional protection is intended specifically for nuclear-related equipment or for another military purpose. The large tarp adds another layer of uncertainty because it prevents satellites from obtaining a clear view of the work taking place underneath. No. The imagery provides evidence that Iran is rebuilding and fortifying Taleghan 2. It does not independently establish what the reconstructed facility will be used for. The concern stems from the site’s historical association with Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons research, particularly work involving high explosives. There is also an important distinction between a nuclear-linked facility and an active nuclear weapons production site . Satellite imagery can reveal construction patterns, buildings, vehicles and structural changes. It generally cannot determine precisely what activities are taking place inside a covered or underground facility without additional intelligence or physical access. That makes the purpose of the rebuilt Taleghan 2 one of the central unanswered questions. Taleghan 2 is part of a larger challenge facing international efforts to understand the condition and purpose of Iran’s nuclear-related infrastructure. Satellite imagery has become an important source of information because some sensitive Iranian facilities are underground, heavily protected or difficult for international inspectors to access. The latest imagery also comes amid continuing international concern over Iran’s nuclear activities and the ability of international inspectors to monitor its facilities. Restrictions on access can create an intelligence gap. When inspectors cannot physically examine a location, analysts have to combine commercial satellite imagery, historical records, intelligence assessments and other information to determine what may be happening. That makes developments at sites such as Taleghan 2 particularly important to outside observers. Several key questions remain unanswered. First, what will the rebuilt facility contain? The September imagery cannot establish what equipment is being installed beneath the tarp. Second, will the site return to its historical role? The facility’s previous association with high-explosive testing makes that possibility significant, but current imagery alone cannot confirm it. Third, why is Iran investing in additional hardening? The construction could reflect a desire to protect a strategically important military installation, but the exact reason remains unknown. Finally, how much of the underground facility has actually been reconstructed? Commercial satellite images provide an exterior view, while much of Taleghan 2 remains concealed below ground. These uncertainties mean the latest development should be described as evidence of substantial reconstruction rather than proof of an active nuclear weapons program. The next major indicator will be what appears at the site once construction progresses further. Future satellite imagery could reveal changes in the building’s external configuration, new ventilation systems, equipment deliveries, or other infrastructure that may help analysts determine the facility’s intended purpose. International access would provide a much clearer picture, but until that happens, assessments will continue to rely heavily on satellite imagery and intelligence analysis. For now, the available evidence shows a determined Iranian effort to reconstruct and strengthen Taleghan 2, a facility with a long history of scrutiny over suspected nuclear weapons-related activities. The imagery raises important questions about Tehran’s intentions, but it does not provide definitive evidence that Iran is currently using the site for nuclear weapons development.
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Sep 21, 2026, 09:45 AM
California Moves to Strengthen Oversight of Advanced Artificial Intelligence Systems

California Moves to Strengthen Oversight of Advanced Artificial Intelligence Systems

California is moving to strengthen oversight of advanced artificial intelligence systems, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing an executive order that puts an emergency “kill switch” for frontier AI models among the measures the state will consider. The September 18 order directs California officials to accelerate the implementation of recently enacted AI oversight laws and convene a group of experts to develop recommendations within two months. Those recommendations could include requiring frontier AI companies to develop emergency shutdown mechanisms, subjecting them to independent verification and placing independent evaluators inside AI laboratories. The order does not itself require AI companies to install a government-controlled switch immediately. Instead, it advances a process for potentially strengthening California law and creates a framework for more independent scrutiny of advanced AI systems. In the context of the California proposal, a kill switch would be an emergency mechanism capable of shutting down or disabling a frontier AI model when a serious safety problem occurs. The concept is aimed at scenarios in which an AI system behaves outside expected constraints, including so-called loss-of-control incidents. California’s order calls for the effectiveness of any proposed shutdown mechanism to be independently verified on an ongoing basis. It also proposes changing the state’s definition of critical AI safety incidents to cover loss-of-control events. The idea sounds straightforward, but implementing it raises technical questions. A shutdown mechanism would have to work reliably during an emergency, including circumstances in which an AI system has access to external tools, computer infrastructure or other resources. The executive order goes beyond emergency shutdowns. Gavin Newsom is directing state agencies to accelerate recently enacted laws establishing independent verification organizations and a registry of AI auditors. Under the proposals outlined in the order, frontier AI companies could eventually be required to have designated independent verification organizations conduct regular audits and evaluations at their laboratories. Safety frameworks, transparency reports and risk assessments could also be subject to independent verification. The objective is to create an additional layer of oversight between AI developers and the safety assessments used to evaluate their systems. That approach could be particularly relevant as companies increasingly rely on internal testing to determine whether their models remain within prescribed safety boundaries. The move comes after a series of incidents involving increasingly autonomous AI systems. One major example cited by California is the July incident involving OpenAI and Hugging Face, in which AI systems operating during cybersecurity testing bypassed certain controls and interacted with external systems. California’s new order specifically calls for “loss-of-control” incidents such as the Hugging Face episode to be incorporated into the state’s definition of critical AI safety incidents. The broader debate has intensified as AI models become capable of handling increasingly complex, multi-step tasks, including software development, cybersecurity testing and research. The central policy question is whether safety systems should be designed before those capabilities expand further or developed in response to incidents after they occur. Gavin Newsom has explicitly framed California’s approach in contrast with the federal government’s position. In announcing the order, he called for Congress and President Donald Trump to consider adopting California’s AI framework nationally. His administration argues that federal oversight has not kept pace with the technology’s development. That is a political argument advanced by Newsom and his administration, rather than an uncontested description of federal policy. The Trump administration has generally emphasized maintaining US leadership in AI and has opposed calls for a broad slowdown in development. Reuters reported this week that Trump has rejected additional AI regulation, while several technology executives and lawmakers have called for stronger safeguards. The issue is not confined to California. On September 16, Republican Senator John Kennedy introduced legislation that would require certain advanced AI developers to maintain emergency shutdown mechanisms. Kennedy sought to advance the measure through unanimous consent, but Senator Rand Paul objected, preventing it from moving ahead through that expedited procedure. Separately, senators have been discussing broader legislation that could require major AI developers to demonstrate that they are taking reasonable precautions against serious harms. The federal debate remains unresolved, leaving California and Washington to pursue different approaches to AI oversight. The latest move also marks a change from Newsom’s position two years ago. In September 2024, he vetoed California Senate Bill 1047, a proposed law that would have imposed additional requirements on developers of large AI systems. At the time, Gavin Newsom argued that the bill focused too heavily on the size of an AI model rather than the environment in which it was deployed and whether it was actually being used in a high-risk setting. He said California needed rules grounded in evidence and focused on demonstrable threats. The governor’s current approach is more focused on independent oversight, risk assessment, incident reporting and frontier systems. That distinction is important because the latest order does not simply revive SB 1047. It builds on a different set of laws that California enacted in 2025 and 2026. California’s AI regulatory framework has expanded substantially since the 2024 veto. In 2025, Newsom signed SB 53, which established disclosure and reporting requirements for developers of certain frontier AI systems. In 2026, he signed SB 813, creating a framework for independent verification organizations, and AB 1405, establishing a registry for AI auditors and setting standards for their independence and transparency. The September 18 executive order is designed to speed up those measures while asking experts to identify additional safeguards. That gives California a regulatory architecture that is increasingly focused not only on what an AI model can do, but also on how its developers test and monitor it. A shutdown button is only useful if it works when it is needed. For conventional software, turning off a service may be relatively straightforward. Advanced AI systems, however, can be distributed across multiple servers, integrated into applications and connected to external tools. That means any emergency mechanism may need to account for model replicas, connected services, access credentials and other infrastructure. There is also the question of authority. A system could have a technical shutdown feature without giving a government agency direct control over it. California’s proposal specifically emphasizes independent verification of whether the mechanism works rather than simply announcing that a switch exists. The conversation around AI regulation is also broader than hypothetical superintelligence. Recent incidents involving AI agents have raised concerns about cybersecurity, unauthorized access, data exposure and systems acting outside their intended constraints. At the same time, public concern about AI’s economic effects is increasing. A June 2026 Pew Research Center survey found that 71% of US adults expected AI to lead to fewer jobs in the United States over the next 20 years, up from 64% in 2024. For policymakers, that means AI governance increasingly covers multiple categories of risk, from cybersecurity and privacy to employment, misinformation and physical safety. The immediate next step is not deployment of a kill switch. California’s Government Operations Agency, working with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, is expected to convene experts and develop recommendations within two months. Those recommendations could inform future changes to state law, including rules on independent audits, safety assessments and emergency shutdown mechanisms. Whether California ultimately adopts a mandatory kill-switch requirement will therefore depend on the recommendations, subsequent policymaking and the practical details of any legislation or regulation. The order has nonetheless moved an idea once largely discussed in theoretical AI-safety circles into a concrete policy process.
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Sep 21, 2026, 09:38 AM
'Gondhal' Selected for Oscars 2027 Despite Being Box Office Flop

'Gondhal' Selected for Oscars 2027 Despite Being Box Office Flop

The Marathi film'Gondhal'has become a hot topic these days. The film has been selected as India's official entry to the Oscars 2027. Gondhal'has been in the headlines since then. But did you know that this film was a box office flop. The film was released on 14 November 2025. The film was distributed by AA Films. The film was a small budget film. The film received good reviews but lagged behind in showing its success at the box office. According to Koimoi, the film opened with 5 lakhs. The film was in theaters for 6 weeks. The film collected only 84 lakhs nett. The gross was 99 lakhs. According to reports, the budget of the film was 3-4 crores. The film recovered only 28 percent of the budget. The film suffered 72 percent loss. The film was a flop. The film is written by Santosh Davakhar and directed by him. The film is produced by Deeksha Bhobacker under the banner of Davakhar Films.
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The Daily Guardian
Sep 21, 2026, 09:35 AM
India's Aging Population: The Importance of Early Diagnosis and Awareness in Managing Alzheimer's Disease

India's Aging Population: The Importance of Early Diagnosis and Awareness in Managing Alzheimer's Disease

With India facing a growing problem of an aging population and increasing consciousness regarding the health of the brain, have become two issues of great significance in the field of healthcare, which need increased awareness, proper diagnosis, and management. The celebration of offers a chance to understand that Alzheimer’s disease is not just another health issue related to forgetting or being old; it is an illness affecting memory, thinking, behaviour, and functioning. However, one of the biggest hurdles when addressing this condition is the problem of diagnosing the illness itself. are considered normal symptoms of old age, and thus they do not seek medical attention. It is believed that an early neurological test, cognitive evaluation, and individualized treatment planning can assist in the understanding of the disease. Considering the same , said, “It is very important to assess the development of the disease early enough because it helps us know the progress of the disease and organize the care at the right time. The problem is that many patients get to the doctor’s office only after some symptoms of the disease have started to impact their everyday life. This timely and appropriate evaluation will help us develop the appropriate care plan that is more than just a management of the disease. Our main goal here is to keep people independent and make sure that the quality of their life is as good as possible. Alzheimer’s care is a multidisciplinary activity that includes medicine treatment, cognitive training, rehabilitation, and counseling for caregivers. Dementia is not the problem of one person, but the problem of the whole family. That is why it is very important to provide holistic care for all members of the family.” Considering the same, , said, “Management of Alzheimer’s disease is based on individualization and a holistic method due to the fact that each individual perceives this disease differently. Alongside the medical treatment of the disease, it is vital to pay equal attention to cognitive stimulation, rehabilitation, and management of lifestyle. Awareness is important because by detecting the symptoms, one would be able to provide adequate medical assistance to the patient. Apart from metropolitan cities, there is a need for better understanding and accessibility for neurological diseases. Memory disorders have not been understood in several places, causing a delay in seeking treatment. Enhancing community understanding and availability to specialized neurological treatment are some key ways of combating the problem of dementia.” Considering the same, , said, “There should be increased awareness of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease in places other than big towns. Families tend to perceive memory problems as just another aspect of aging and fail to consult a doctor. Increased awareness will facilitate prompt diagnosis and better access to neurology; this will enable us to guide many people and help their families cope with dementia. The importance of preventive methods for the brain is stressed by experts as one of the major components of healthy aging. Physical activity, healthy diet, sound sleep, social engagement, and the treatment of any underlying disease like diabetes and hypertension can result in better cognitive health. World Alzheimer’s Day is one example of such awareness programs that can be used to raise awareness about early symptoms”. Adding to the same , said, “Health of the brain should be seen as an important aspect of healthcare in general. Precaution, proper health checks, and knowledge regarding early signs may prompt people and their families to take appropriate steps. Although Alzheimer’s disease is a very complicated disorder, creating awareness of the importance of neurological health will assist in eliminating stigma as well as seeking professional advice. With the emergence of healthcare facilities in India, professionals believe that early detection and a compassionate attitude towards treatment would be crucial in aiding patients with Alzheimer’s disease.” , said, “Early neurological test is not ideal terminology. There is no single neurological test that diagnoses dementia. ICMR specifically states that no single test definitively diagnoses dementia; diagnosis involves history, examination, cognitive assessment, functional assessment and evaluation for other causes. Symptoms are considered normal symptoms of old age should be softened to avoid implying that all memory complaints are dismissed. Better: Changes in memory or functioning are sometimes attributed to normal ageing, which can delay evaluation.” Dementia itself is not a normal part of ageing. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia – technically, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause/form of dementia, accounting for approximately 60–70% of dementia cases, rather than Alzheimer’s and dementia being completely separate conditions. India-specific statement: There is strong evidence that stigma, limited awareness, and gaps in coordinated services contribute to delayed diagnosis in India. Alzheimer’s Disease International’s India-focused analysis describes early diagnosis as particularly challenging.” It is that acts as an important pointer to the fact that awareness and early diagnosis can help a lot in the lives of people suffering from dementia. (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
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Indian Express logo
Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 09:19 AM
Saudi Arabia-Yemen Conflict Escalates as Houthi Militia Gains Control of Red Sea Coast

Saudi Arabia-Yemen Conflict Escalates as Houthi Militia Gains Control of Red Sea Coast

The fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis has sharply escalated in the past two weeks, with the militia making their biggest territorial gains in years. On September 10, they captured the strategic Red Sea port of Mocha (after which Mocha the coffee is named) along with other territory along Yemen’s western coast. By September 17, Ansar Allah, the official name of the Houthi militia, effectively controlled much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Thus, while the Houthis are gaining more power against Yemen’s official government, which Riyadh backs, they are also in the position to disrupt Saudi oil flow on its western coast, at a time its eastern coast shipping is already suffering because of the Strait of Hormuz blockade. The global oil price has already crossed $100 per barrel, up from $70 in June 2026 The Houthis have also launched missiles and drones at Saudi territory, including attacks on energy infrastructure. Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes and warnings of stronger action. On paper, Saudi Arabia has defence partnerships with multiple key players in the region. The US-Saudi Strategic Defense Agreement was signed on November 18, 2025; Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed their Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA) on September 17, 2025; and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement on August 7, 2026. The Makkah agreement says an armed attack on any one of the three countries will be regarded as an attack on all three. So why have Pakistan, Turkey, or the US not joined the fighting against the Houthis? While the Makkah agreement is supposed to be a defence treaty, few details about its actual operational structure are available publicly. It does not delineate the escalation ladder, or what sort of response is expected from a member at which stage when another is facing attacks. Both Pakistan and Turkey have said that Saudi Arabia has not requested them to send combat forces to Yemen. Turkish officials have said their Parliament is yet to approve the defence treaty. Pakistan, of course, also has another mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia. However, barring a few fighter jets it sent in April when Iran was attacking US military assets in the kingdom, Pakistan hasn’t intervened militarily. Nor has Saudi Arabia come to Pakistan’s aid against Afghanistan, with both countries prioritising their own immediate concerns. In the past few days, Pakistan has said it will extend all help to Saudi Arabia, but hasn’t given details. Recently, defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told a Pakistani news channel that, “Under the trilateral agreement, if the territorial integrity of a country comes under threat, the agreement will be activated and the other two countries will proceed to protect it in fulfilment of their obligations.” But when asked specifically about military involvement against the Houthis, Asif said the government’s strategies couldn’t be made public at this stage. Both Pakistan and Turkey are using diplomatic channels to calm the fighting. Pakistan specially has asked Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, to rein in the militia. Retired IFS officer Anil Trigunayat, who has served as Director General of the Gulf and Haj Divisions in the Ministry of External Affairs, explained another reason. “Pakistan, Turkey and the Makkah Pact are stuck in a competing conundrum as they do have a good relationship with Iran and are not convinced that this time, the war was initiated by Houthis,” he told The Indian Express. Pakistan has a big reason to not antagoise Tehran too much — it shares a 900-km border with the Shia country, passing through the restive Balochistan region, and has the world’s second largest Shia population in the world, after Iran itself. US President Donald Trump has reportedly declined Saudi requests for direct military intervention against the Houthis. The US has participated in the Yemen conflict in the past. It reached an understanding with the Houthis in 2025, under which it stopped its bombing campaign in return for a Houthi commitment not to attack American vessels. That arrangement is still relevant. Right now, the Houthis are threatening only Saudi ships in the Red Sea, but they have the power to completely disrupt navigation in this crucial water body. With the world still reeling from the economic shock of the blocked Strait of Hormuz, the US would not want this. Also, US munitions are running low as the war with Iran grinds on. The Trump administration would not want to open another front in the Middle East when midterm elections are approaching and the Iran war is anyway unpopular. Then is the Iran factor. The Houthis have largely been trained and armed by Iran. If other countries were to enter active fighting on Saudi Arabia’s behalf, Iran and its allied militias might get behind the Houthis openly, adding another dimension to the US-Israel-Iran war and risking a much wider conflagration in the region. Because Riyadh has already tried that. The Houthis are Zaidi Shias, and Yemen’s civil war began because they felt marginalised under the Sunni government. In 2014, they captured the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia, a major Sunni power, intervened militarily in 2015. The rich Saudi Arabia has a modern, well-equipped military, but the Houthis survived years of pressure, while the war produced enormous humanitarian and political costs. A UN-mediated truce in 2022 significantly reduced the fighting, although it was never turned into a permanent settlement. The current escalation came because the Houthis want Saudi Arabia to remove its blockade of the territories they control. Today, the Houthis are far better trained and equipped, especially with missiles and drones. A direct confrontation, thus, could be prolonged and messy, with both economic and security costs for Saudi Arabia, at a time the Iran situation is anyway volatile and Riyadh would like to prioritise its growth ambitions. “The history of the Yemen war indicates that Saudis and the 27-member Sunni alliance led by a retired Pakistani general was unable to overpower the Houthis. If an all-out attack is carried out with land forces, perhaps the Houthi resistance can be overcome, but winning against powerful non-state actors needs innovative strategies. Hence, the Saudis are seeking mitigation, including Chinese intervention with Iran,” Trigunayat said.
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The Daily Guardian logo
The Daily Guardian
Sep 21, 2026, 09:00 AM
HDFC ERGO Strengthens Claims Experience with Digital-First Approach

HDFC ERGO Strengthens Claims Experience with Digital-First Approach

Claim support matters most when customers are already managing hospital visits, treatment decisions and family responsibilities. A digital-first claims experience can make this stage easier by bringing essential actions within closer reach. HDFC ERGO is strengthening this journey through online claim registration, digital document handling, tracking and customer support. The approach keeps convenience at the centre while maintaining the checks needed for responsible claim assessment. For policyholders, greater accessibility can make the claims journey feel more organised, transparent and manageable. HDFC ERGO has built a connected digital claims process that helps customers manage important steps through accessible servicing channels. When a household relies on a healthcare needs, convenient digital access to claim services can make coordination easier during treatment and recovery. Customers can register claims online, submit relevant information and follow progress through available digital platforms. The process aims to make claim-related actions more convenient while ensuring that assessment continues according to policy terms, documentation requirements and applicable conditions. Starting a claim can feel demanding when attention is already focused on medical care. HDFC ERGO supports online claim registration through its digital servicing ecosystem, allowing policyholders to begin the process without unnecessary difficulty. Customers can provide the required details through the available digital route and move ahead with the claim journey more conveniently. Online filing adds flexibility while keeping accuracy important, since correct information and complete documentation remain essential for the insurer to assess the claim appropriately throughout the assessment. Documents play an important role in claim assessment, and digital submission can make this responsibility easier to manage. HDFC ERGO allows customers to upload relevant claim documents through its digital channels when required. Keeping discharge summaries, medical records, bills, prescriptions and supporting information organised can help the process move more smoothly. The exact documents needed may vary depending on the treatment and claim circumstances, so policyholders should follow the specific requirements communicated during the claim process for every submission carefully. Waiting for a claim update can create uncertainty, especially when a family is also managing treatment and recovery. HDFC ERGO offers digital claim tracking and status communication that helps customers stay informed as the claim progresses. This visibility can make it easier to understand whether additional information is needed or whether the claim has moved to another stage. By making updates easier to access, the digital journey supports a more informed and convenient experience for policyholders throughout the process online. Questions can arise at different stages of a claim, making timely access to support important. HDFC ERGO provides digital servicing through platforms such as the Here app, website support options, chatbot and WhatsApp-based assistance. These channels give customers more ways to seek information, complete routine servicing actions and understand the next steps in their claim journey. Digital support adds convenience while continuing to complement assisted service, helping customers choose the channel that feels most practical for their needs during claims. Cashless health claims can become more convenient when the hospital and insurer coordinate directly during the process. At a network hospital, the hospital sends the pre-authorisation request and relevant medical information to HDFC ERGO for review. This arrangement can reduce the need for customers to manage every administrative step themselves while they focus on treatment. Cashless approval remains subject to policy terms, medical details, documentation and claim assessment, ensuring that convenience continues alongside appropriate review and verification at every stage. Digital servicing can support smoother claim handling by allowing information to move through defined and accessible channels. HDFC ERGO combines online claim registration, document submission and digital status updates to create greater continuity across the claims journey. When customers provide accurate information and respond promptly to document requests, the process can become easier to manage. Actual processing timelines may still vary depending on claim complexity, verification requirements and documentation, making complete and timely submissions important throughout the assessment process overall. Customer convenience in insurance is not only about speed. It is also about making important actions easier to understand, access and complete when people need them most. HDFC ERGO brings claim servicing and support into digital platforms, giving policyholders more flexibility in managing information, tracking progress and seeking assistance. This customer-focused approach helps reduce unnecessary friction while keeping access to assisted support available whenever a claim requires further clarification, documentation or guidance from the insurer’s service teams throughout the journey. Digital convenience is becoming an important part of health insurance claims, where customers value clarity, accessibility and dependable communication. HDFC ERGO’s digital-first approach connects claim registration, document submission, status tracking, support and cashless coordination within a more convenient journey. By combining accessible technology with appropriate claim assessment, HDFC ERGO continues to improve customer convenience while helping policyholders manage important claim-related steps with greater ease, visibility and confidence throughout the process. If you object to the content of this press release, please notify us at pr.error.rectification@gmail.com. We will respond and rectify the situation within 24 hours. (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
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DD News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 08:03 AM
National Film Awards: A History of Celebrating Indian Cinema's Excellence

National Film Awards: A History of Celebrating Indian Cinema's Excellence

The National Film Awards, instituted in 1954, have evolved over more than seven decades into the country’s principal national recognition for excellence in cinema. From the first edition, which honoured films in three categories, the awards have expanded to recognise feature films, non-feature films, writing on cinema and outstanding lifetime contributions to Indian cinema through the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The awards were established following the recommendation of the Film Enquiry Committee, which was constituted in 1949. The first edition, held in 1954, honoured films made in 1953 and marked the beginning of a national system of recognition for artistic and technical excellence in Indian filmmaking. A modest beginning in 1954 The first edition of the National Film Awards covered three categories – feature films, documentary films and children’s films. Shyamchi Aai, a Marathi film, won the President’s Gold Medal for the Best All-India Feature Film. Mahabalipuram received the President’s Gold Medal for the Best Documentary Film, while Do Bigha Zamin received a Certificate of Merit. This initial set of honours laid the foundation for what has become more than seven decades of national recognition for Indian cinema. The objectives of the awards were defined around encouraging the production of films of aesthetic and technical excellence as well as social relevance. The awards also sought to help audiences understand and appreciate the cultures of different regions of India, thereby promoting the unity and integrity of the nation. The National Film Awards also encourage the study and appreciation of cinema as an art form. Recognition of books, articles and film criticism provides a wider platform for critical engagement with cinema. Recognition that extends beyond the screen A National Film Award provides national recognition to filmmakers, artistes and technicians for their work. Such recognition can draw audiences towards films that might otherwise reach a relatively limited circle of viewers, while also contributing to the professional journey of the filmmakers and opening opportunities for future projects. Over the years, the awards have widened their scope in line with the growth and changing character of Indian cinema. The National Film Awards are now organised across three principal sections – Feature Films, Non-Feature Films and Best Writing on Cinema – along with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which stands apart as the highest honour in Indian cinema. The Feature Film section covers full-length films and includes categories such as Best Feature Film, Best Direction and Best Actor in a Leading Role. It also recognises Best Children’s Film, Best Cinematography, Best Music Direction, Best Costume Design and other aspects of filmmaking. The Non-Feature Film section recognises documentaries, short films, animation and other allied forms. Its categories include Best Documentary, Best Short Film, Best Animation Film, Best Arts and Culture Film, Best Narration or Voice Over and Best Script, among others. The Best Writing on Cinema section recognises the Best Book on Cinema and Best Film Critic. Acting and technical awards expand the canvas Awards for artistes and technicians were separately established for films of the year 1967. The first Best Actor and Best Actress awards were presented in 1968 to Uttam Kumar and Nargis. The Best Actor award was then known as Bharat, while the Best Actress award was called Urvashi. As Indian cinema expanded in terms of its languages, genres, technology and artistic forms, the National Film Awards steadily introduced new categories and recognised a wider range of creative and technical crafts. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in 1969 and was first presented to Devika Rani. From State Awards for Films to a national institution The awards were instituted in 1954 as the State Awards for Films, with the first honours covering films made in 1953. The Directorate of Film Festivals began administering the awards in 1973. In 2022, the Directorate of Film Festivals was merged into the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), which became the present implementing body. The 72nd National Film Awards were announced in July 2026, with the award ceremony scheduled to be held at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat. National Film Awards: Key Milestones 1913: Dadasaheb Phalke completed Raja Harishchandra, a landmark in Indian filmmaking. 1954: The awards were instituted as the State Awards for Films, with the first honours recognising films made in 1953. 1967-68: Awards for artistes and technicians were introduced. Uttam Kumar and Nargis received the first acting honours. 1969: The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted, with Devika Rani as its first recipient. 1973: The Directorate of Film Festivals began administering the awards. 2022: The Directorate of Film Festivals was merged with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), which became the present implementing body. 2026: The 72nd National Film Awards were announced in July, with the award ceremony scheduled to be held at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat. Award structure The Feature Film section comprises 26 categories, including special mentions, while the Non-Feature Film section has 16 categories, including special mentions. The Feature Film and Non-Feature Film sections use Swarna Kamal and Rajat Kamal medals, with cash prizes of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively. The Best Writing on Cinema section has two categories and carries the Swarna Kamal along with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award carries the Swarna Kamal and a shawl. For the 72nd National Film Awards, the cash prize for the award is Rs 10 lakh. Recognition for every language The National Film Awards are designed to reflect the linguistic diversity of Indian cinema. A Best Feature Film award is given in each language listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution. Films made in languages outside the Schedule are recognised through separate awards under the relevant provisions. The 72nd edition reflects this wider linguistic canvas, with Dholi in Garhwali and IMBU in Tulu receiving recognition under this provision. This approach allows films from different linguistic and cultural traditions to find a place within the national framework of cinematic recognition. How National Film Award winners are selected Entries are invited every year for films certified during the preceding calendar year. The Ministry constitutes separate juries for each of the three award sections. The juries comprise distinguished contributors from cinema, allied forms of art and the humanities. Two-tier assessment for feature films Feature films are evaluated through a two-tier process introduced from the 57th edition onwards. In the first stage, five regional panels assess and shortlist entries received from different parts of the country. The shortlisted films then move to a central panel, which decides the winners in the Feature Film section. The Non-Feature Film section and the Best Writing on Cinema section have their own separate juries. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award follows a different selection process. No entries are invited for the award. Instead, a specially constituted committee of eminent film personalities recommends the recipient. Cinema as culture, identity and influence Cinema remains one of India’s most expressive art forms and an important cultural asset. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting describes it as a powerful medium for creativity, culture and innovation. The significance of Indian cinema also extends beyond artistic expression. India’s media and entertainment sector is now the world’s fifth largest and is supported by 2 to 2.5 million digital creators. The country also has a 40 to 60 percent cost advantage in animation and VFX services, adding to the global reach of India’s creative industries. Indian films carry India’s cultural heritage and soft power to audiences around the world while supporting livelihoods across languages and regions. National Film Awards and the changing face of Indian cinema Indian cinema today reaches audiences through more languages and formats than ever before. The expansion of the National Film Awards has followed this transformation, creating space for different forms of filmmaking and recognising both creative and technical achievement. The awards are intended to recognise cinematic merit rather than commercial scale alone, bringing together major productions and films emerging from smaller filmmaking traditions on a national platform. The 72nd edition illustrates this continuing expansion. A Santhali film has entered the roll of honour for the first time, while a veteran of Kannada cinema is set to receive the highest honour in the field. Taking the National Film Awards beyond the capital A significant change in the organisation of the National Film Awards is the decision to hold the ceremony in different parts of the country. The Ministry has decided that future editions will travel beyond the National Capital to different States and cities. The ceremony at Ekta Nagar will bring together cinematic talent from across India. The move is intended to bring the awards closer to audiences outside the capital and provide a national stage to film cultures that have developed far from the country’s major studios. The initiative is also positioned within the spirit of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, bringing together India’s diverse cinematic traditions on a common national platform. Dadasaheb Phalke and the origins of Indian cinema The history of the National Film Awards is closely connected with the history of Indian cinema itself. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke, directed Raja Harishchandra in 1913, marking a landmark in Indian filmmaking. He went on to make 94 feature films and 27 short films. Phalke, who lived from 1870 to 1944, is commemorated as the Father of Indian Cinema through the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, instituted by the Government of India in 1969. The award represents the highest honour in Indian cinema and recognises outstanding contribution to the growth and development of the country’s film industry. From the first national honours in 1954 to the 72nd edition in 2026, the National Film Awards have evolved alongside Indian cinema, expanding from a modest set of recognitions into a comprehensive national platform for celebrating filmmakers, artistes, technicians, writers and the many cinematic traditions that make up India’s film culture.
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ABP News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 07:36 AM
Weekend OTT Line-up: Crime Thrillers, Dramas, and More

Weekend OTT Line-up: Crime Thrillers, Dramas, and More

Entertainment is going to be hot on OTT this week. In fact, between September 21 and September 27, a variety of films and series are being released on all digital platforms, including crime thrillers, interesting dramas, comedies and reality shows. So let's know this week's OTT line-up here. Directed by Rensil D'Silva: Trust No One is a crime thriller drama film. Its story revolves around a mother who has spent a long and difficult time of nine years to find her missing child. Along with Parineeti Chopra, this film will see Jennifer Winget, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Soni Razdan, Anup Soni, Harleen Sethi, Sumeet Vyas and Dhruv Choudhary playing important roles. It will be seen on Netflix from September 24, 2026. This crime-courtroom thriller revolves around 17-year-old Meenu Rawat (Aneet Padda), who is a spiritual leader named'Bapji'( Raghubir Yadav) and a spiritual leader named'Spiritual Stream'from September 25. Jio will be able to play a powerful sexual assault on the star.
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Sep 21, 2026, 07:35 AM
New Film Releases: Box Office Performance of 'Vaira', 'Vibe', and 'Resident Evil'

New Film Releases: Box Office Performance of 'Vaira', 'Vibe', and 'Resident Evil'

Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan's'Vaira ', Kunal Khemu's'Vibe'and Hollywood film'Resident Evil'were released on 18 September. Apart from these new films,'Hanuman Ansh'and'Mirzapur The Movie'are also making their presence on the box office. Let us know how much all these films have earned on Sunday. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran's'Vaira'was released on 18 September. The film's box office opening was slow and it earned 1 crore on the first day. However, it saw some growth on Saturday and'Vaira'earned 1.75 crore on the second day. Vibe also has Kunal Khemu, Preity Zinta and Sparsh Shrivastava in the lead roles. The film also had a slow start at the box office and earned 1.70 crore on the first day. However, on Saturday,'Vibe'saw an increase in its collection. The second day collection of this film was Rs.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 07:34 AM
Global Gender Gap Index 2026: Key Highlights and Rankings

Global Gender Gap Index 2026: Key Highlights and Rankings

Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your UPSC Current Affairs knowledge nugget for today on Global Gender Gap Index 2026. The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released its 2026 Global Gender Gap Report, the 20th edition, covering 145 economies and analysing a longitudinal constant sample of 97 economies included in every edition since 2006. As global indices are important markers for comparative understanding of a country’s progress, the highlights of these reports are also important for adding value to your Mains answers. In this context, let’s know the key highlights of Global Gender Gap index 2026. 1. The Global Gender Gap Index is released every year by the WEF. It was first introduced in 2006 to benchmark the current state and evolution of gender parity. 2. The Index measures gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment . The index lies between 0 and 1, with 1 denoting complete parity. The gender gap is the distance from full parity. 3. According to the Global Gender Gap Index 2026, globally, 69.2% of the gender gap has been closed , reflecting a slight 0.4% improvement from last year. 4. In 2026, there is no economy that has reached full parity. For the 17th consecutive year, Iceland reports the highest level of gender parity at 93% and remains the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its overall gender gap. Iceland is followed by Finland and Norway. 5. European economies make up the majority of best performers in 2026 and across time. In 2026, Europe represents 70% of the leaderboard between Iceland (93%, 1st), Finland (87.2%, 2nd), Norway (85.7%, 3rd) the United Kingdom (84.2%, 5th), Sweden (82.3%, 7th), Germany (81.7%, 9th), and Ireland (81.4%, 10th). 6. Completing the top 10 are Namibia (84.5%, 4th), the highest scoring Sub-Saharan economy ; New Zealand (82.8%, 6th), in a recurring appearance; and Australia (81.9%, 8th) making its top 10 debut. Eastern Asia and the Pacific economies have the second-highest footprint, with 17% of all top 10. 7. Across the four dimensions of the index, Health and Survival (96.2%) and Educational Attainment (96.9%) are the two dimensions closest to parity, while Economic Participation and Opportunity (61.7%) and Political Empowerment (22.1%) account for the widest gender gaps. 8. Chad ranked lowest ( 145th ), joined by Pakistan and Iran in the bottom three. 9. India has retained its 131st rank out of 145 countries this year with 64.5% gender parity. This marks a 4.3% point improvement since the inaugural 2006 edition, the country still lags behind the global average of 69.2%. 1. Gender Inequality Index (GII): GII is published by the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) in their Human Development Report . It measures gender inequalities in three key dimensions — reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market. The score ranges from 0, where women and men fare equally, to 1, where one gender fares as poorly as possible in all measured dimensions. 2. Gender Development Index (GDI): It is published by UNDP . GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources, measured by female and male estimated earned income. 3. Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI): It is a composite scheme developed by UNDP and UN Women to assess the status of women’s achievements relative to men’s in four dimensions of human development: life and good health; education, skill-building and knowledge; labour and financial inclusion; and participation in decision-making. 4. Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI): It is a composite index developed by UNDP and UN Women to measure the level of women’s empowerment across five dimensions: health, education, inclusion, decision-making, and violence against women. A value close to 1 indicates higher empowerment across the five dimensions, and a value close to 0 indicates lower empowerment. Which of the following gives ‘Global Gender Gap Index’ ranking to the countries of the world? (UPSC CSE 2017) (a) World Economic Forum (b) UN Human Rights Council (c) UN Women (d) World Health Organization Answer key (a) (Sources: http://www.weforum.org , Why Global Gender Gap Report 2025 is important for your UPSC exam) 🚨As we mark the 3rd anniversary of the UPSC Essentials Magazine , we thank our readers for being part of this journey. Your trust, feedback and continued support have shaped the magazine and encouraged us to keep improving with every edition. Click here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for September 2026 . Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or write to us at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com.🚨 Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – Indian Express UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X
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The Daily Guardian
Sep 21, 2026, 07:25 AM
inLens: A Game-Changer in Education Technology

inLens: A Game-Changer in Education Technology

It’s Friday, 6 p.m. Most of the school has gone home. One teacher hasn’t. In front of her: 42 exam scripts, a red pen, and a weekend she was hoping to keep. Every teacher knows this scene because marking well takes time that the school day never quite has. Read an answer. Judge it against a mark scheme. Write something more useful than a tick. Repeat, forty more times. Then do it again for the next class. This is the part of school assessment nobody puts in the prospectus. And it’s the part inLens, Precision assessment and learning Intelligence was built to fix. Ask any principal what eats into a teacher’s week, and marking will come up before almost anything else. An exam might run two hours. Grading it properly — consistently, fairly, with feedback that actually helps a student improve — can take days. That time has to come from somewhere. Usually, it’s taken from lesson planning. Sometimes from the one-to-one attention a struggling student needs most. It’s a trade-off no school chooses on purpose. It just happens, exam after exam, term after term. What If the Exam Didn’t Have to Change — Just What Happens After It? Here’s the question worth sitting with: does fixing this actually require replacing the exam itself? Most EdTech answers say yes — put students on devices, redesign the test, retrain everyone. inLens answers differently. Students still sit the exam on paper, exactly as they always have. Nothing changes for the child in the room. What changes happens afterwards. Teachers scan and upload the answer sheets. From there, inLens takes over the evaluation — checking, marking, and applying the same standard across every script in the class. According to Ulipsu’s own data, that can cut grading time by 70–80%, with a full class evaluated in minutes rather than days. No new devices. No new exam format. Just a very old bottleneck, finally addressed. Picture a class of 35 students sitting the same maths paper. Fifteen of them score poorly. A traditional mark sheet stops there. It won’t tell you if those fifteen struggled with the same concept, or fifteen different ones. It won’t tell you whether the problem is one student’s gap — or the whole class needing the topic retaught. inLens goes further. Every student gets feedback that names their specific strengths and gaps, not just a number. And because the platform sees every script, it can surface patterns a single teacher, marking alone at 6 p.m. on a Friday, might not have time to spot. That’s the real shift. The exam stops being a full stop. It becomes a starting point for what gets taught next. Most classrooms run on a familiar rhythm: teach, test, grade, move on. The test rarely loops back into the teaching. inLens is built to close that loop. When a student keeps struggling with the same concept, the platform can generate targeted practice for exactly that gap — before it compounds into a bigger problem three terms later. For teachers, that turns raw marks into something actionable. For school leaders, it means academic patterns are visible across a class or a year group without weeks of manually compiling spreadsheets. For parents, it means a report card that finally says more than a number out of 100. The workload problem doesn’t begin at grading. It often starts earlier, with teachers building question papers from scratch, balancing difficulty and syllabus coverage almost entirely by hand. inLens supports that end too — generating curriculum-aligned question papers to a school’s own specifications, so teachers keep control over what’s being tested without building every paper from a blank page. Put together, one platform now spans the full arc: create the paper, run the exam on paper as usual, upload the scripts, evaluate them, personalise the feedback, and act on what the results reveal. This is the question that matters more than any efficiency statistic. Marking dozens of near-identical scripts is necessary. It is not where a teacher’s real skill lives. That skill shows up in a different moment — explaining, patiently, for the third time, why a concept isn’t clicking. Adapting a lesson overnight because half the class missed the point. Noticing which student has gone quiet, and why. That work doesn’t automate. It doesn’t scale. And it’s exactly the work that gets squeezed out when Friday evenings disappear into a marking pile. If a school assessment platform can hand teachers those hours back, the real return isn’t measured in minutes saved. It’s measured in what a teacher chooses to do with them. The exam hall doesn’t change. Students still walk in, take the paper, and write their answers exactly as generations of students have before them. What’s different is everything that happens after they put the pen down. Ulipsu is a K–10 future-skills and learning innovation ecosystem, working with more than 350 partner schools across India and the Middle East to build future-ready learners through skills, technology, and measurable learning outcomes. Operating since 2017, Ulipsu has reached more than 1 million children and trained thousands of teachers. If you object to the content of this press release, please notify us at pr.error.rectification@gmail.com. We will respond and rectify the situation within 24 hours. (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
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Sep 21, 2026, 07:06 AM
Prime Video Unveils Trailer for Season 2 of 'Dupahiyaan' Comedy-Drama Series

Prime Video Unveils Trailer for Season 2 of 'Dupahiyaan' Comedy-Drama Series

Prime Video has released the trailer of its popular comedy-drama series'Dupahiyaan'season 2. After the tremendous success of the last season, this time too the story is very funny. This time the spice of crime, rumors and comedy has doubled in the story. Bhojpuri star Nirahua has also entered this series. The story of season 1 is where it ended. Season 2 moves forward and once again returns with its brilliant cast. The trailer of'Dupahiyaan'season 2 takes the audience once again to Dhadakpur, which was once considered to be the only crime-free village in India. Geography may have got a lot of fame here, but this fame has a price. At the same time, a new mobile tower on the barren land of Banwari starts a round of rumors, superstitions and commotion in the village. Roshini along with Amavas is busy preparing for their SSC exams.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 06:54 AM
Tata-Cyrus Mistry Dispute: Supreme Court Judgment Takes on New Significance Amid Tata Sons Governance Battle

Tata-Cyrus Mistry Dispute: Supreme Court Judgment Takes on New Significance Amid Tata Sons Governance Battle

The Supreme Court’s judgment in the Tata-Cyrus Mistry dispute in 2021 has assumed fresh significance amid the escalating battle over the control and governance of Tata Sons. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appointed by Tata Trusts, referred to the judgment on Sunday, arguing that the court had “clearly given Tata Trusts the primacy” in their relationship with Tata Sons. The Court’s decision to uphold the special Articles of Association governing the Trusts’ rights, as well as its observations on their fiduciary obligations, was highlighted by Singhvi. The observation comes at a particularly sensitive juncture . Tata Trusts, which collectively own about 66% of Tata Sons, are challenging the validity of the September 17 board decision to reappoint N Chandrasekaran as executive chairman for another five-year term. Their contention is that the Articles require the affirmative support of the Trusts’ nominee directors for certain decisions, and that neither a general board majority nor the chairman’s casting vote can override that requirement. The legal question is not whether the 2021 judgment directly decided the Chandrasekaran dispute. Rather, it is whether the principles and provisions upheld by the Supreme Court in the Cyrus Mistry case have a bearing on the interpretation of the present Articles of Association. The dispute began after Cyrus Mistry was removed as executive chairman of Tata Sons in October 2016. The Mistry family and the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which held about 18.37% of Tata Sons, subsequently challenged his removal and alleged oppression and mismanagement. The litigation eventually reached the Supreme Court after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), in December 2019, had ordered Mistry’s reinstatement as executive chairman and granted other reliefs to the Mistry group. In March 2021, a three-judge Supreme Court Bench headed by then Chief Justice S A Bobde overturned the NCLAT verdict and ruled in favour of Tata Sons. The 282-page judgment dealt with several issues, including Mistry’s removal, minority shareholder rights, Article 75 of Tata Sons’ Articles and the special voting rights of Tata Trusts’ nominee directors. The Supreme Court held that the mere removal of a person from the position of chairman could not by itself amount to oppression or prejudice. It also rejected NCLAT’s order reinstating Mistry and its restrictions on Tata Sons’ use of Article 75. In the present Tata Sons confrontation, one part of the judgment is particularly important — the Court upheld the affirmative voting rights of the nominee directors of the Tata Trusts. What did SC say about Tata Trusts’ special rights? The Tata Sons Articles of Association gave the two principal Tata Trusts– Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust — special rights, including the ability to nominate directors. The Mistry side had challenged the special voting powers available to the Trust nominees, arguing that these rights were oppressive and prejudicial. The NCLAT had accepted this argument and sought to curtail those powers. However, the Supreme Court reversed that finding. The Court held that the directors nominated by the two Trusts had the right to affirmative voting because, in addition to their responsibilities in relation to the companies they represented, they had duties towards the beneficiaries of the Trusts. These affirmative voting rights effectively gave the Trust nominees veto powers on specified matters. The Court upheld their validity. That is the portion of the 2021 judgment now being invoked by Tata Trusts. Why is this relevant to the current power struggle? The present dispute turns on the interpretation of the same basic governance architecture. Article 104B gives the Tata Trusts the right to nominate one-third of the Tata Sons board while they hold the prescribed shareholding. More importantly, Article 121 requires matters decided by a majority of directors to also receive the affirmative vote of a majority of Trust-nominated directors. That provision has become central to the Chandrasekaran controversy. There are currently two Tata Trusts nominees on the Tata Sons board — Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan. On September 17, Srinivasan supported Chandrasekaran’s reappointment, while Noel Tata opposed it. Four other directors voted in favour. Tata Sons treated the result as a valid majority decision. Tata Trusts disagreed and questioned the validity of the chairman’s casting vote, which happened after the split verdict. Their argument is that where the Articles prescribe an additional condition — affirmative support from the required number of Trust nominees — that condition has to be satisfied independently of the overall board arithmetic. In its statement on Sunday, Tata Trusts said that “majority amongst two is two and not one” and argued that the chairman’s casting vote could operate only in case of equality of votes at the overall board level. It could not, in the Trusts’ interpretation, substitute for the affirmative support required from the Trust nominees. Did the Supreme Court give Tata Trusts a ‘veto’? The 2021 judgment did not create a new veto for Tata Trusts. Rather, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of special rights already contained in Tata Sons’ Articles. The Court was examining whether the special rights enjoyed by the Trust nominees were oppressive or prejudicial to the minority shareholder. It rejected the challenge and upheld the affirmative voting rights. Article 121 gave the Trust nominees, in effect, a veto over specified matters which include areas such as strategic plans, major investments, capital structure and changes affecting the Trusts’ shareholding. The present dispute is therefore about how those rights operate when the two Trust nominees themselves disagree. That question was not the central issue before the Supreme Court in the Mistry case. What exactly is Tata Trusts’ argument today? The Trusts say Tata Sons cannot rely on the Articles selectively. In their September 20 statement, they pointed out that Tata Sons had defended the affirmative voting provisions before the Supreme Court when the Mistry group sought to have them deleted or restricted. The company had argued then that these provisions were legitimate protections for the majority shareholder. The Supreme Court accepted that position and rejected the NCLAT’s finding that the rights were oppressive. The Trusts’ present argument is consequently straightforward: if Tata Sons successfully defended these provisions before the Supreme Court, it cannot now disregard the same provisions when they become inconvenient. This is the legal and constitutional foundation of Singhvi’s reference to “primacy”. But “primacy” should not be read as meaning that the Supreme Court has declared Tata Trusts supreme over every decision of Tata Sons. The judgment upheld particular rights contained in the Articles and recognised the position of the Trust nominees in the governance structure. The precise application of those provisions to the September 17 vote remains a matter for legal interpretation. What was the impact of the 2021 judgment? The immediate impact was decisive. Cyrus Mistry was not reinstated and the NCLAT judgment was overturned. The judgment also settled several important questions concerning private-company governance. One was minority representation. The Supreme Court held that a minority shareholder does not automatically have a statutory right to proportional representation on the board of a private company. The Mistry family’s 18.37% stake therefore did not, by itself, create such a right. Another was the importance of the Articles of Association. The Court held that the Articles, as they existed, were binding and could not simply be rewritten through proceedings before the tribunal. And, crucially for today’s dispute, the Court upheld the special affirmative voting rights of the Tata Trusts’ nominees. The judgment thus strengthened the legal significance of the constitutional arrangements through which Tata Trusts exercised influence over Tata Sons. What does the judgment mean for the Chandrasekaran dispute? The 2021 verdict does not automatically invalidate or validate the September 17 resolution. It provides an important legal backdrop. The Supreme Court has already examined the Tata Sons Articles in the context of the Mistry dispute and upheld the legitimacy of the Trusts’ special affirmative voting rights. Tata Trusts are now relying on that history to argue that those rights cannot be diluted through an alternative interpretation of the same Articles. The other side of the argument is likely to focus on the precise wording of the relevant provisions, the distinction between a board majority and a separate affirmative-vote requirement, and the circumstances in which a chairman’s casting vote can operate. Former Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has separately given a legal opinion sought by Noel Tata stating that a casting vote cannot substitute for the affirmative support of the Trust nominees. The dispute is therefore moving beyond a personality clash between Noel Tata and Chandrasekaran. It is becoming a test of the Tata Sons constitutional structure itself.
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Free Press Journal
Sep 21, 2026, 06:44 AM
IIT Bombay Professor Under Scrutiny Following Student's Death

IIT Bombay Professor Under Scrutiny Following Student's Death

Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, a faculty member in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering (DESE) at IIT Bombay, has come under scrutiny following the death of second-year student Sahil Wakode and the protests that followed on the institute campus. Doolla has been associated with IIT Bombay for more than 15 years and has held several academic and administrative positions at the institute. His academic work focuses on power systems, smart grids, microgrids, renewable-energy integration and energy efficiency. IIT Bombay's faculty profile lists his research interests as including smart grids, microgrids, converter topologies and control, communication protocols for power systems, distributed energy resources and power-system operation and control. He is currently listed by IIT Bombay as Dean (Administrative Affairs) and a professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering. "इस इंस्टिट्यूट में जातिवाद होता है" 🔥🔥 यह बयान IIT Bombay की एक स्टूडेंट का है, यह डायरेक्टर के सामने बोल रही है, अब भी नहीं मानोगे मनु की औलादों, मनु की औलादों को लगता है, जातिवाद नामक कोई समस्या है ही नहीं, उनको लगता है मनु की व्यवस्था बेहतरीन थी, शूद्र को पढ़ने का अधिकार… pic.twitter.com/EVRhS0Qrwe Doolla completed his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Nagarjuna University in 2000. He then pursued an M.Tech in Energy Systems Engineering at IIT Bombay, completing the programme in 2002. He subsequently completed his PhD in Power Systems from IIT Delhi. IIT Bombay's official faculty profile records his doctoral qualification as a PhD in Power System from IIT Delhi, awarded in 2007. Before joining IIT Bombay, Doolla worked in the power and technology sectors. His professional experience included a stint with Power Research and Development Consultants Pvt Ltd in Bengaluru and work with Machine 2 Machine in Hyderabad. He also worked as a lecturer at CRR College of Engineering in Eluru earlier in his career. Doolla's research career has largely centred on modern power-system technologies. His areas of interest include: Smart grids Microgrids Renewable and distributed energy integration Converter topologies and control Power-system communication protocols Power-system operation and control Energy efficiency His IIT Bombay profile lists research publications in these areas and also shows courses taught by him, including Distributed Generation and Microgrids, Basic Electrical Engineering and Energy Engineering. Doolla's association with IIT Bombay has extended beyond teaching and research. He served as Dean of Student Affairs from March 2023 to July 2026, according to the professional profile information provided by Doolla. IIT Bombay's records also identify him as having served as Dean of Student Affairs. He subsequently took charge as Dean of Administrative Affairs. IIT Bombay's current institute-functionaries page lists him in the position, along with his official institute contact details. His administrative responsibilities have included working on matters related to student and institutional affairs. He has also been associated with the organisation of major entrance examinations conducted by IIT Bombay, including JEE Advanced, UCEED and CEED, according to information about his institutional responsibilities. Doolla has received several recognitions during his academic career. These include the IIT Bombay Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017, the Prof. S.P. Sukhatme Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021 and a Young Faculty Award in 2009. He has also received recognition through IEEE-related awards and fellowships. His work in power systems and microgrid technologies has resulted in research publications and collaborations in the field. Doolla came into focus following the death of 20-year-old IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode on September 18, 2026. According to IIT Bombay's account, Wakode was found using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination. The institute said the student had uploaded the examination question paper to an AI platform to seek answers. Doolla was the course instructor and was invigilating the examination. The IIT Bombay Faculty Forum subsequently said Doolla was carrying out his responsibilities in accordance with the institute's Senate-approved academic policies when he reported the alleged examination malpractice. IIT Bombay has said Wakode was subsequently counselled by the instructor and the Head of Department and was assured that the examination incident would not adversely affect his academic career. The institute has maintained that no disciplinary action had been initiated against him before his death. Amid the protests and allegations surrounding the death of Sahil Wakode, the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum issued a statement on September 20 expressing solidarity with Professor Suryanarayana Doolla. The Faculty Forum, a formal body through which IIT Bombay faculty members voice their views to the institute and other bodies, said Doolla had been discharging his duties in accordance with the institute’s Senate-approved academic policies. It also offered condolences to Wakode’s family. According to the statement, Doolla was the course instructor and was invigilating the mid-semester examination from 11 am to 1 pm on September 18 when he observed a student allegedly in unauthorised possession and use of a smartphone during the exam. The Faculty Forum said Doolla reported the alleged academic malpractice to the institute authorities for further action, describing this as part of the institute-approved procedure. “We strongly express our solidarity with our colleague Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla,” the forum said, adding that it was distressed over what it described as the tarnishing of his reputation. The statement was issued by Professor Rajkumar S. Pant, president of the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum. The forum's account represents the faculty body's position on Doolla's actions; allegations made by Wakode's family and the police investigation remain separate matters. Wakode's family has made allegations of harassment and caste-based discrimination. A police case was registered following the family's complaint, and the allegations are under investigation. IIT Bombay has denied allegations of caste discrimination and has disputed claims concerning the circumstances and disciplinary action following the examination incident. The investigation into Wakode's death has subsequently been taken over by the Mumbai Crime Branch, according to reports.
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Siasat News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 06:23 AM
US Fuel Prices Reach All-Time High Amid Global Energy Crisis

US Fuel Prices Reach All-Time High Amid Global Energy Crisis

Washington: fuel prices in the U.S. continue to break all-time records, hitting USD 6.28 a gallon as a national average on September 14, 2026, and they aren’t likely to come down anytime soon. Because diesel is the fuel for freight transportation, farming and construction – and is related to a key heating fuel – the effects are set to spread across the entire US economy. The inflation-adjusted price of diesel in late August was about as high as it was in 2022 and has likely risen further. There are still three factors that we, scholars of US and global energy markets and supply chains, see that set the stage for prices to remain high and potentially climb even further. Two of these elements – environmental protection regulations on oil refineries and Russia’s war with Ukraine – have been building tension for years. But the situation has been pushed into a crisis by the US war against Iran, which has closed the Strait of Hormuz to a large percentage of oil and refined products shipments for more than six months. Amid that crisis, US oil refineries are making lots of money. In mid-September 2026, diesel prices were up 67 per cent over September 2025’s monthly national average of USD 3.75 a gallon, and they have risen sharply since. In January 2026, before the US and Israel first attacked Iran in late February, the average diesel price in the US was lower, at USD 3.52 a gallon – meaning that diesel prices have jumped more than 78 per cent since the war began. In part, that’s because the country, and the world, have been losing diesel refining capacity for many years and can’t just ramp up production to fill the shortages. Starting in 2006, U.S. federal regulations were phased in that required refiners to produce diesel fuel with far less sulfur than had previously been allowed. The regulations were intended to reduce air pollution and acid rain precursors mainly from trucks and buses. The resulting fuel was much cleaner. In 2014, the rules were applied to locomotives and marine vehicles. U.S. refineries had to install expensive equipment to comply, which took years and billions of dollars. This, in turn, increased costs between 5 and 9 cents per gallon. And the fuel contains slightly less energy per unit of volume – so a larger quantity of low-sulfur diesel is required to meet the demand. Only one refinery, in Galveston, Texas, has been built in the past 50 years, and at 45,000 barrels per day it meets less than 0.2 per cenf of U.S. demand. In 2025, two refineries shut down due to poor economic performance. And since 2020, more than a dozen others have converted to producing renewable diesel to take advantage of federal and state biofuel incentives, but that conversion can cut the amount of actual fuel they produce at least in half, according to our estimates. As a result, the remaining refineries are running flat out. Crude going into refineries reached about 17.5 million barrels a day in late August, and refineries were operating at nearly 98 per cent of their maximum capacity – the highest level since 2018. Even so, output of distillate, which includes diesel and related fuels such as heating oil and jet fuel, was lower than in 2025. Distillate inventories held by refiners, distributors and retailers fell to about 103 million barrels by late August, the lowest for that point in the calendar since 1951. As US inventories of diesel fell in August, the country’s diesel exports hit a record high as the global market sought to fill supplies normally provided by Russia. Historically the world’s second-largest diesel exporter after the United States, Russia banned exports of diesel on July 9, 2026, to ensure supplies for its military. In September, the country extended the export ban until the end of 2026 in the wake of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries. Middle Eastern refiners, also key to global diesel supplies, have scaled back production because of disruptions from the war with Iran. Together, these forces mean the supply for diesel is very tight. On September 15, 2026, US Senate Majority Leader John Thune proposed the U.S. ban diesel exports to increase domestic availability. Even before the crisis in the Persian Gulf, the US Energy Information Administration reported several factors were pushing diesel prices upward, including large exports to Europe, a cold winter in the Northeast in 2025-26 and high freight demand. With the war continuing, refinery companies are taking advantage of the low supply – and their inability to make a whole lot more diesel – to charge more than ever for diesel fuel. By late August, short-term profit margins for making diesel – called “crack spreads” in the industry – surpassed $100 per barrel for the first time ever, clearly showing demand for the fuel is well outpacing supply, as well as demand for crude oil itself. What this means is that truckers, drivers and shipping companies are paying more for diesel – costs that are passed on to consumers. At the same time, refinery companies are seeing large profits. The vast majority of the diesel fuel used in the U.S. is for transportation, mostly trucking. Other significant users are the railroad, agriculture, construction and marine industries. A congressional Joint Economic Committee analysis in September 2026 found that higher diesel prices added more than USD 1.4 billion to the cost of planting major U.S. crops in 2026 versus 2025, a 63 per cent increase, with Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota hit hardest. Because nearly every retail item travels by truck at some point, the diesel spike also feeds slowly into broader consumer inflation. And there’s one more hit coming: Heating oil, which is chemically closely related to diesel, is a key heating fuel in the northeastern U.S. The latest projection from the Energy Information Administration expects national distillate inventories to fall below 100 million barrels in September and stay at that level through much of 2027. That’s lower than it has been since 2021, and heating oil prices for the coming winter are already up 30 per cent or more. The Middle East conflict is having wide-reaching implications. While crude oil prices are now above USD 100 per barrel, it is diesel, the fuel that much of the economy runs on, that is feeling the greatest stress. And as refiners run flat out, any interruption would reduce production, as happened after a power outage at a Mobil refinery in Illinois on Sept. 13. With falling stockpiles, even a sudden end to the Iran war is unlikely to yield significantly lower prices anytime soon.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 06:11 AM
India Selects Two Films for Best International Feature Category at 99th Academy Awards

India Selects Two Films for Best International Feature Category at 99th Academy Awards

Last week, the Film Federation of India selected Santosh Davakhar’s Marathi thriller Gondhal as the country’s official entry for the Best International Feature category at the 99th Academy Awards, scheduled to take place on March 14 next year in Los Angeles, California. However, just a couple of days after that, another Indian film has qualified for the same Oscars race — Naga filmmaker Theja Rio’s Angh. Although Indian producers are free to apply for various other categories directly at the Academy Awards, and compete in the race to a coveted trophy, the rules of qualification for the Best International Feature were quite clear till last year. Only the film officially picked as the country’s Oscars entry qualifies for the shortlist for that category. For instance, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound was selected as India’s official Oscars entry last year, and even made it to the shortlist for the Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards earlier this year. However, it couldn’t make the final cut, and secure an official nomination in the category. Last year, another Indian co-production — Sandhya Suri’s police procedural Santosh, starring Shahana Goswami, was also in the Oscars race for a place in the Best International Feature category. While the film never saw light of the day in Indian cinemas, it was selected as the official Oscars entry by the United Kingdom, since it was an international co-production between India, the UK, Germany, and France. But there have been several films, which without being selected as India’s official Oscars entry, have qualified for other categories at the Academy Awards over the years. These notably include Kartiki Gonsalves’ 2022 Netflix documentary short The Elephant Whisperers, Rayka Zehtabchi’s 2018 documentary short Period. End of Sentence., and even the track “Naatu Naatu” from SS Rajamouli’s 2022 blockbuster period action epic RRR, which all won Oscars in their respective categories. However, earlier this year in May, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced some revisions to the eligibility criteria for some of the categories. It expanded the scope of the Best International Category by stating that starting next year, films from countries outside of the US can be eligible for the category even if they’re not picked as the official entry by their respective countries. The qualifying criteria in that case is that the film will have to win a top jury prize at major international film festivals like Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, and Venice. Angh, the Nagaland-set film, was the only Indian film this year to have its world premiere at Platform, the competitive section dedicated to distinctive director-driven cinema, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Angh outperformed 11 other films from across the globe to win the coveted top prize of the Platform section on Sunday. Thus, as per the revised eligibility criteria of the Academy, it’s also in the running for the Best International Feature category at the 99th Oscars next year, along with India’s official entry, Gondhal. Both films will also compete with each other in the coming months to secure a place in the final nominations. Also Read — Dhurandhar wasn’t ‘Oscar material’, Main Vaapas Aaunga was in the running: jury member Angh is set against the backdrop of Nagaland in the 1960s. Written and directed by Rio, Angh marks the filmmaker’s first feature after a string of internationally screened and award-winning short films. Originally conceived as a short film years ago, the film was finally developed into a feature before it qualified for the Platform section at TIFF this year.
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Siasat News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 06:01 AM
Hyderabad Set to Host One of World's Largest Cinema Screens in Collaboration with Megastar Chiranjeevi

Hyderabad Set to Host One of World's Largest Cinema Screens in Collaboration with Megastar Chiranjeevi

Hyderabad may soon be ready to make movie history and this time, it could be on a screen so massive that the entire cinema experience gets a whole new meaning. The city, already known for its grand theatres and passionate movie-going culture, is reportedly gearing up for another major addition . If the latest reports are anything to go by, Hyderabad could soon be home to one of the world’s largest cinema screens, in a major collaboration between Asian Cinemas and Megastar Chiranjeevi. Asian Cinemas, one of the leading film exhibitors in Telangana, is reportedly set to partner with Chiranjeevi for an ambitious premium cinema project in Hyderabad’s Financial District. The proposed property is expected to offer a larger-than-life movie-watching experience, with the screen planned on a massive scale. The project could be named Asian Chiranjeevi Cinemas (ACC) or Asian Megastar Cinemas (AMC), though there is no official confirmation on the name yet. The collaboration is already generating buzz among movie lovers, particularly because of the scale being discussed. If the proposed screen meets or exceeds the dimensions of some of the world’s biggest operating cinema screens, Hyderabad could once again find itself in the global spotlight. Currently, Traumpalast Leonberg in Germany holds the Guinness World Record for the largest operating cinema screen. Its screen measures around 127 feet wide and 69 feet tall, covering approximately 8,770 square feet. The theatre has a capacity of 574 recliners and features IMAX dual laser technology. Another massive screen is located at Royal Cinemas 14 IMAX Dual Laser in Pooler, Georgia, USA. Its screen measures approximately 101 feet wide and 76.2 feet tall, covering around 7,696 square feet, with a capacity of 363 recliners. The proposed Asian Cinemas-Chiranjeevi project is attracting attention because of its reported scale. If the final screen dimensions match or surpass these existing benchmarks, it could potentially place Hyderabad among the destinations known for some of the world’s biggest cinema screens. More details about the premium property, screen size, technology and official name are expected to be announced soon.
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Free Press Journal
Sep 21, 2026, 06:01 AM
Jackie Shroff Joins Mumbai's Ganeshotsav Celebrations at Iconic Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani Pandal

Jackie Shroff Joins Mumbai's Ganeshotsav Celebrations at Iconic Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani Pandal

Mumbai’s Ganeshotsav continues to bring together devotees from all walks of life, and actor Jackie Shroff was among those who joined the city’s festive darshan rush. The actor recently visited the iconic Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani, where he offered prayers and sought blessings from Bappa. Watch the video below: A post shared by Chinchpoklicha Chintamani (@chinchpoklichachintamani) Jackie Shroff visits Mumbai's popular pandal A video shared by the pandal showed Jackie Shroff making his way towards the idol. He kept his festive look traditional, wearing a white kurta-pyjama with a yellow scarf, a red cap and sleek sunglasses. A plant chain around his neck added his signature nature-loving touch to the ensemble. Upon reaching the idol, Jackie touched Bappa’s feet and offered his prayers. He also carried his familiar green plant, placing it near the idol as an offering. The organisers later presented him with fruits, flowers and prasad. A post shared by Chinchpoklicha Chintamani (@chinchpoklichachintamani) About Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani is among Mumbai’s longstanding Ganeshotsav celebrations, with its history dating back to 1920. In 2026, the mandal is marking its 107th year, continuing its annual tradition as thousands of devotees visit for darshan. This year, the Chinchpokli Cha Chintamani idol draws inspiration from Lord Venkateswara, bringing a distinctly traditional and devotional element to the celebrations. The iconic pandal remains one of the prominent destinations during Mumbai’s Ganeshotsav, attracting devotees as well as familiar faces from the entertainment industry. A post shared by The Free Press Journal (@freepressjournal) With Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations continuing across Mumbai, Jackie’s visit added another celebrity moment to the festive season while keeping the focus firmly on seeking Bappa’s blessings.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 05:49 AM
Unlocking Cognitive Potential in People with Dementia: The Power of Repetition and Supportive Care

Unlocking Cognitive Potential in People with Dementia: The Power of Repetition and Supportive Care

At 87, Tara Pal was losing herself. As Alzheimer’s disease steadily chipped away at the memories that had held together a lifetime of names, places, routines and her identity, words began to slip away and even the simplest tasks became difficult. The woman who had once carried a lifetime of knowledge in her head could no longer always find her way back to it. Then, almost playfully, she began again. Sitting with her grandchild’s alphabet blocks, Tara started forming words with her. At first, the letters made no sense. Then, one afternoon, they came together to spell her own name: TARA. She smiled as she struggled to put the letters in a row, her frail fingers losing grip every time. Then she went on to spell her daughter’s name, pronounce her husband’s name, call out to him and, eventually, memorise her own address. Tara had not suddenly “recovered” from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. What had changed was her ability to engage with a familiar task, learn through repetition and respond to cues. “With supportive care mechanisms, you can improve the quality of life for an Alzheimer’s patient,” says Dr Prasun Chatterjee, geriatrician and researcher, whose work has explored cognition, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Her story points to a less obvious truth about dementia: the loss of memory is not necessarily the loss of every capacity to learn. “Alzheimer’s does not destroy all types of memory and learning at the same rate,” explains Dr Chatterjee. “Different memory systems rely on different brain networks. Alzheimer’s particularly affects the hippocampus and related medial temporal-lobe networks, which are important for forming new memories. Late-stage Alzheimer’s can leave some forms of learning relatively intact, particularly learning based on repetition, habit and emotional familiarity, even when conscious memory and the ability to learn new facts are severely impaired.” Currently toggling roles as the WHO TAG Member for Healthy Ageing, president of the Indian Academy of Geriatrics, and Group Clinical Lead, Geriatric Medicine and Longevity Science, Apollo Hospital Delhi, he has examined Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline from several directions. From interventions that may support cognition before dementia develops, to behavioural changes that may precede Alzheimer’s, and to biological markers that could eventually help identify the disease earlier. “Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder in which abnormal protein clumps called amyloid (plaques) and tau (twisted tangles) build up in the brain and destroy the patient’s memory, thinking skills and the ability to carry out simple daily tasks,” he says. It is the most common cause of dementia, but the two terms are not interchangeable. Dementia is a clinical syndrome; Alzheimer’s is a disease. Dementia refers to a decline in memory, thinking, behaviour or other cognitive abilities severe enough to interfere with everyday life. Alzheimer’s disease is one specific neurodegenerative disease —and the most common cause of dementia. The distinction matters because the underlying cause can influence investigation, treatment and care. “India is looking at an old age pandemic as its ageing population increases,” he adds. One of Dr Chatterjee’s patients is 78-year-old Kamla Mehra* from Noida. Her warning sign was deceptively ordinary: she began asking her son the same question —“Did you go to the market?”— again and again, sometimes five times within an hour. Soon she struggled to name everyday objects and would repeat questions just minutes after receiving an answer. “The family could have dismissed it as normal ageing. Instead, they sought help. A comprehensive assessment identified mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a stage in which cognitive abilities have begun to decline but substantial independence may still be preserved. Unlike Tara, Kamla came to us at a much earlier point in her cognitive journey and opened a very different window for intervention,” says Dr Chatterjee. For generations, memory loss in an older person has often been treated as an inevitable consequence of getting old. But Alzheimer’s is not a normal or inevitable consequence of ageing. “India’s ageing population means that this casual dismissal is becoming increasingly consequential,” he adds. The nationally representative research from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India estimated that about 7.4 per cent of Indians aged 60 and above — roughly 8.8 million people — were living with dementia based on data collected during 2017–2020. The more detailed LASI-DAD research has highlighted an even larger population living with milder forms of cognitive impairment. Researchers estimated the prevalence of major neurocognitive disorder at 7.2 per cent and mild neurocognitive disorder at 17.6 per cent. Among people aged 80 and above, the estimated prevalence of major neurocognitive disorder was 15.2 per cent. And as India’s population over 80 grows, Alzheimer’s will increasingly intersect with another major problem: who will provide the care? “That’s why diagnosing mild cognitive impairment is important. Some people remain stable; others improve when reversible or contributing factors are identified and treated. The signs are many — losing your train of thought, struggling to follow a book or movie plot, or getting easily distracted. Taking longer to find the right word during a conversation. Finding it harder to make decisions, finish multi-step tasks, or pay bills on time. Some could feel disoriented even in familiar places. Irritability, anxiety, depression, acting out of character are all signs of a person losing control over their familiar self,” explains Dr Chatterjee. Kamla’s assessment went beyond asking whether she could remember a list of words. “The six core areas used in medicine to evaluate cognitive impairment are learning and memory, executive function, language, complex attention, perceptual-motor function, and social cognition. The brain has multiple domains, and rehabilitation has to think in multiple domains too. All of these have to be activated to keep the brain functional,” says Dr Chatterjee. At his geriatric clinic, Kamla underwent a comprehensive clinical evaluation and neuropsychological assessment. Using the validated Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III), her initial score was 67/100. Further investigations included scans and blood biomarkers. Dr Chatterjee often tells patients and families that the brain is not a static organ and that one can make it work all the time. “The brain is vastly more complex than a muscle. It responds to experience, practice and stimulation throughout life. It keeps emotions intact. This capacity for adaptation is broadly described as neuroplasticity. So, if you work the brain, it can keep going till the very end. I see 100-year-olds with no dementia or Alzheimer’s. Cognitive decline should be addressed as a whole-body and whole-person problem, not simply as a memory disorder.” he says. Kamla’s “brain gym” was an intensive non-pharmacological programme. Her son was particularly clear that he did not want to continue medications that made his mother excessively sleepy and confused. She had computer-based cognitive training for approximately 40–45 minutes per session, with repeated sessions over three months. She thought she was learning a new skill. Exercises targeted attention, memory, executive function, language and processing speed. But the more important intervention happened outside the clinic. “At home, the family transformed ordinary life into a cognitive training environment. That’s why caregiving is so important. She maintained a diary. She practised recall. She did backward counting, played word and number games. She started learning music, which she always loved. She was made to participate in financial calculations and household activities. All of these may seem simple but engage the brain’s cognitive and functional domains repeatedly and meaningfully,” says Dr Chatterjee. Perhaps the most powerful component of the intervention was not the computer. It was Kamla’s son. During their commute from Noida to Delhi, he would point to vehicle number plates and ask his mother to remember and recite the numbers backwards. At home, he created a large diary where she would write her address, a mantra and details of what she had done. “A simple activity recruited several abilities at once: attention, language, writing, sequencing, recall and fine-motor coordination. This is particularly relevant in India, where families continue to provide a large proportion of dementia care. Depending on specialist appointments will never be sufficient for a country of India’s size,” says Dr Chatterjee. After three months, Kamla’s ACE-III score rose from 67/100 to 87/100. She became more conversational, participated more confidently in social gatherings and helped a local NGO. “You can have reasonable functional skills while living with a neurodegenerative disease. And when you intervene earlier, there may be substantially more capacity to preserve independence and build compensatory strategies,” says the doctor. Dr Chatterjee always has counselling sessions with family members and asks them to repeatedly tell the patient how much they are loved and wanted throughout the day or that they are safe. “The emotional brain can remain deeply responsive even when factual memory has deteriorated. So, an Alzheimer’s patient senses rejection, alienation and disappointment and spirals down if you say, ‘Do you remember me?’ Instead say, ‘I’m here with you.’ That’s why the language of dementia care matters,” he adds. The prevention conversation needs to move much earlier, in midlife. “We only talk about the heart, liver, diabetes. I would say include brain health in that discussion. Current evidence supports attention to several modifiable risk factors, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity, lack of sleep, smoking, harmful alcohol use, hearing loss, depression, social isolation and other cardiovascular and lifestyle factors. And get a cognitive assessment at 65 instead of 75,” he says. Of course, research shows that walking and diet changes help in managing every kind of dementia, leading to targeted interventions. “For example, the brain’s energy metabolism changes in Alzheimer’s disease, and a keto diet works because it provides an alternative fuel source to a brain that can no longer efficiently process glucose for energy. But restrictive diets should always be considered alongside other body conditions and guided,” says Dr Chatterjee. The emergence of anti-amyloid therapies has added an entirely new dimension to Alzheimer’s treatment. Their cost and infrastructure requirements raise major questions about equitable access in India. For example, donanemab costs ₹91,688 per 350 mg vial in India. Introduced by Eli Lilly and Company under the brand name Lormalzi, this is the first once-monthly amyloid plaque-targeting therapy commercially available in the country. So, Dr Chatterjee overrules the pill dependence. “Instead, India needs to build a dementia-care system that begins before the patient reaches the neurologist. Our questions should be about how early can we identify it, how much function can we preserve, and how can we help the person and family live well with it. The answer will always be yes, something can still be done.” (Names changed to protect privacy)
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Siasat News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 05:17 AM
'Mysaa' Teaser Unveiled: Rashmika Mandanna's Intense Journey as Fearless Warrior

'Mysaa' Teaser Unveiled: Rashmika Mandanna's Intense Journey as Fearless Warrior

The teaser of the upcoming film ‘Mysaa’ was unveiled on Sunday. The teaser opens with Rashmika Mandanna’s titular character, Mysaa’s voiceover, as it sets the tone for her intense journey. She says in the teaser, “I am tired, I have stopped, I have lost”. She is portrayed as a fearless and formidable woman who refuses to back down, choosing to fight like a lone warrior. The teaser features striking underwater sequences, with the sequence of Rashmika sitting at the bottom of the water while holding a sickle, creating a haunting and goosebumps-inducing moment. Rashmika stepped into the role of a Gond tribal woman, a demanding character that required intense physical preparation and the execution of challenging action sequences. Earlier, Rashmika reportedly suffered a serious hip injury while filming an intense dance sequence. The actress pushed through demanding action and dance schedules, which led to a complete tendon detachment in her hip. As per media reports, doctors were surprised by the severity of the injury, stating that this kind of tendon damage is usually seen in athletes who undergo rigorous physical training. The actress was advised a complete rest for 6 weeks by medical experts. Her recovery was followed by a structured rehabilitation program to aid her recovery and help restore strength. Produced by Unformula Films, ‘Mysaa’ is an action-drama directed by debutant Rawindra Pulle. The film is being mounted on a grand scale with an emphasis on large-scale action and technically ambitious vision. The makers have yet again confirmed that Mysaa is slated for a theatrical release in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam on November 27, 2026.
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ABP News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 05:11 AM
Ed Sheeran Breaks Down on Stage Amid Controversy Over Tourmate's Removal

Ed Sheeran Breaks Down on Stage Amid Controversy Over Tourmate's Removal

Recently, rapper Macklemore shouted Free Palestine during his concert in New Jersey. He was removed from Ed Sheeran's US tour. Despite all this controversy, Ed Sheeran continued his'Loop Tour'on Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. During this concert, Ed Sheeran became emotional and cried while talking about the controversy surrounding his tour and the situation in Gaza. Singer became emotional while reading a pre-prepared statement from the teleprompter and also apologized to the fans for the decisions he took in that difficult week. Sheeran became very emotional while talking to the crowd of 50 thousand people and his voice was filled many times. He said that the events of the last week have made him rethink some of his closest relationships, because his family members and friends had left him'alone '. A fan said, "This is the only real video you can make of me in this situation."
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 05:04 AM
China's Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Watchlisted Vedanta Resources Subsidiary Over Financial Concerns

China's Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Watchlisted Vedanta Resources Subsidiary Over Financial Concerns

A complex corporate structure; the parent company’s limited access to much of the group’s reported cash; a weak standalone financial position; and, the borrower’s reluctance to provide information required for compliance checks. These were among the concerns flagged in internal documents of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) even as it placed a Cyprus-based subsidiary of Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources on its internal watchlist in 2016 over a $500 million loan. However, records show the bank’s exposure was repaid in full in 2017. These records were reviewed by The Indian Express as part of China Capital — a global investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), of which this newspaper is a partner, into 4.8 million files leaked from the London branch of ICBC. Internal records of 2014 trace the bank’s assessment of the loan to the Vedanta subsidiary from its decision to participate — and show that it commissioned an external enhanced due diligence review after the subsidiary allegedly failed to provide information required for compliance checks. A Vedanta spokesperson said: “The syndicated facility was tied up with six leading international banks back in 2013 and since been repaid. As is common practice, the original lenders may transfer their exposure in the secondary market. Any exposure held by ICBC could have arisen through such a transfer and there is no current relationship. Vedanta has maintained transparent disclosures over the years, in line with its robust governance standards.” Records show ICBC joined a US$500 million four-year syndicated facility provided to Cyprus-incorporated Welter Trading Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, with the parent acting as guarantor. It participated as a senior lender, with a total exposure of around US$65 million split between its London (US$29 million), Singapore (US$20 million) and Mumbai (US$15 million) offices. According to internal ICBC records, Vedanta remained compliant with the loan covenants and the credit “performed in a regular manner” until late 2015, when weakening commodity prices and successive ratings downgrades triggered scrutiny, with concerns escalating in February-March 2016. An internal ICBC watchlist memorandum said “the cause for concern” was a combination of falling commodity prices, “a succession of multi-notch rating agency downgrades” and a waiver request under which “key financial covenants have been required to be relaxed”. The waiver request came as Vedanta faced refinancing pressure on about US$1.3 billion of debt maturing in mid-2016, prompting S&P to downgrade the company in February 2016 and place it on CreditWatch with negative implications because of its weak financial position, refinancing risk and complex corporate structure. After the majority of lenders approved the waiver, S&P removed Vedanta from CreditWatch in April 2016, saying it had secured adequate funding, could refinance its maturing debt through intercompany loan repayments and had obtained covenant waivers that “eliminate[d] the risk of covenant breaches”. Even after the waiver, however, ICBC placed the exposure on its internal watchlist. An April 2016 memorandum noted that much of the group’s reported cash was held by Cairn India Ltd and Hindustan Zinc Ltd, but Vedanta Resources’ effective ownership interests were only about 37.6% and 40.8%, respectively. It cautioned that although the group reported large cash balances, only about one-third of that cash was effectively available to the parent company to meet its funding and debt obligations. The cash-access issue coincided with Vedanta’s June 2015 proposal to merge with Cairn India, which the company said would simplify the group structure and improve access to Cairn India’s cash balances. The ICBC memo also characterised the parent company as having “no operating assets” and relying almost entirely on dividends from subsidiaries, resulting in what it called “an extremely weak financial profile” for the holding company. Moreover, a client due diligence report in 2017 states that “there was a failure on the part of Welter Trading Limited to meet its obligations to provide ICBC (London) PLC with the regulatory requirements we communicated to them”. It adds that the bank was “unable to complete the full due diligence due to client being reluctant to provide the required information”, prompting ICBC to commission an independent enhanced due diligence review from a third-party provider. Even after the review, the report says “some areas were not detailed enough as per ICBC standards”, leaving questions over ownership, source of funds, controllers and other regulatory information. Despite these concerns, the relationship ended without credit loss — and Welter Trading was removed from the watchlist. In India, ICBC’s sole Mumbai branch commenced operations in September 2011, growing nearly five-fold from its earliest available filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in 2015 (see chart). The Mumbai branch’s latest balance sheet shows its top 20 borrowers accounted for over Rs 2,203 crore, or 58.14 per cent of total advances, in 2025-26. It opened at Bandra Kurla Complex on September 18, 2011 — the first mainland Chinese bank branch in India — as a “commitment to building up the commercial bridge between India and China”. The Chinese government holds over 70 per cent of ICBC, though offshore lending is just 8.5 per cent of its book, according to a CRISIL report in 2024. The report stated that the Mumbai branch “is mainly into corporate banking, trade finance and import/export related business”. On June 9, 2018, The Indian Express reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has “raised objections to a proposal” for ICBC “to open a second branch in India”, citing concerns that the bank “employed more than the authorised number of Chinese nationals at its existing Mumbai branch”. The bank is yet to open a second branch in India. ICBC did not respond to questionnaires from The Indian Express and ICIJ detailing the findings and seeking its response. Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter focused on offshore finance, equitable growth, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. Over two decades, his work has been recognised by the International Press Institute, the Ramnath Goenka Foundation, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, the Asian College of Journalism etc.Expertise and ExperienceMazoomdaar’s major investigations include the extirpation of tigers in Sariska, global offshore probes such as Panama Papers, Robert Vadra’s land deals in Rajasthan, India’s dubious forest cover data, Vyapam deaths in Madhya Pradesh, mega projects flouting clearance conditions, Nitin Gadkari’s link to e-rickshaws, India shifting stand on ivory ban to fly in African cheetahs, the loss of indigenous cow breeds, the hydel rush in Arunachal Pradesh, land mafias inside Corbett, the JDY financial inclusion scheme, an iron ore heist in Odisha, highways expansion through the Kanha-Pench landscape etc. ... Read More Shyamlal Yadav is one of the pioneers of the effective use of RTI for investigative reporting. He is a member of the Investigative Team. His reporting on polluted rivers, foreign travel of public servants, MPs appointing relatives as assistants, fake journals, LIC’s lapsed policies, Honorary doctorates conferred to politicians and officials, Bank officials putting their own money into Jan Dhan accounts and more has made a huge impact. He is member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He has been part of global investigations like Paradise Papers, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, Uber Files and Hidden Treasures. After his investigation in March 2023 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York returned 16 antiquities to India. Besides investigative work, he keeps writing on social and political issues. ... Read More
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 04:37 AM
Heart-Related Symptoms in Older Adults: Don't Ignore the Warning Signs

Heart-Related Symptoms in Older Adults: Don't Ignore the Warning Signs

Getting tired more easily, feeling breathless after a short walk or slowing down physically can seem like an inevitable part of getting older. But it can get particularly concerning when you learn that the symptoms are actually linked to the heart. “Many heart-related symptoms in older adults develop gradually and can resemble common signs of ageing, such as tiredness, reduced stamina, breathlessness, or slower mobility,” Dr Aseem Dhall, Director & HOD, Cardiac Sciences, ISIC Multispeciality Hospital, told indianexpress.com, adding that as a result, both patients and family members may assume these changes are “simply a natural part of getting older.” But persistent changes in stamina, breathing or day-to-day functioning can sometimes point to an underlying heart condition. The heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently may decline because of disease, and overlooking symptoms can delay the diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or abnormal heart rhythms. Not every episode of tiredness or breathlessness means there is a heart problem. But a new or noticeable change from an older person’s usual routine deserves attention. Dr Dhall lists unusual tiredness, breathlessness while walking short distances, swelling in the feet or ankles, dizziness, reduced ability to exercise, frequent fatigue and unexplained weakness among the symptoms that can be mistaken for normal ageing. Families may also notice subtler changes they don’t immediately associate with the heart. “Some older adults may also experience disturbed sleep, loss of appetite, or difficulty carrying out routine daily activities.” These symptoms can sometimes be early warning signs of heart failure, blocked arteries, valve disease or other cardiovascular conditions. For instance, if someone who could previously walk to the market, climb a few stairs or manage household activities comfortably now gets unusually tired or breathless doing the same things, it is worth asking why rather than automatically blaming age. Delay in treatment adds to the complications. Some may go unnoticed when there is no one regularly monitoring their wellbeing. “Isolation, neglect, and inadequate family support can significantly delay healthcare-seeking behaviour among older adults, particularly those who have become financially dependent,” Prateep, COO, HelpAge India tells indianexpress.com. When most people think of a heart attack, they picture severe or crushing chest pain. Older adults, however, may not always have this classic symptom. “Unlike younger individuals, older adults may not always experience classic crushing chest pain during a heart attack,” Dr Dhall clarifies. Instead, they may experience sudden breathlessness, extreme fatigue, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, unusual sweating, confusion or weakness. The discomfort may also be felt in the jaw, neck, back, shoulder or arms. “Some may simply feel unwell without being able to explain why,” he adds. That vague feeling of being unwell can be particularly easy to dismiss in an older person, especially if there is no obvious chest pain. But sudden or unexplained symptoms should not be ignored, as early medical evaluation is important. “This highlights the need to bring preventive healthcare closer to older adults through regular screenings, blood pressure monitoring, basic diagnostics, and timely referrals,” says Prateep. Dr Dhall’s advice is straightforward: “Any sudden or unexplained symptom should be taken seriously in an older adult.” This includes new-onset breathlessness, chest discomfort, fainting, severe dizziness, a rapid or irregular heartbeat, unexplained sweating, confusion, sudden weakness, swelling in the legs or a significant decline in physical activity. Some symptoms may also indicate a neurological emergency. “Symptoms such as difficulty speaking, facial drooping, or weakness on one side of the body also require urgent attention,” Dr Dhall says. The important distinction is between a gradual, familiar change and a new, unexplained or worsening symptom. Getting older can naturally change how much a person can do, but it should not become a reason to overlook a significant change in their health. If an older adult suddenly becomes breathless, weak, dizzy, confused or unable to carry out routine activities as usual, prompt medical evaluation is safer than assuming it is simply “old age”. DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to. Always consult your health practitioner before starting any routine.
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Free Press Journal
Sep 21, 2026, 04:21 AM
Typhoon Approaches East Japan's Pacific Coast; India Wins Silver Medal in Shooting at Asian Games

Typhoon Approaches East Japan's Pacific Coast; India Wins Silver Medal in Shooting at Asian Games

Aichi-Nagoya: A large typhoon was moving towards East Japan's Pacific Coast on Monday, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning of heavy rain, strong winds and landslides, Kyodo News reported. Also Watch: Typhoon Dujuan is projected to pass near Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, from the evening to late Monday, as per Japan's weather agency. Downpours stemming from linear rainbands could also take place in the Kanto-Koshin region in the east and Tokai region of Central Japan. Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? The year's 25th typhoon has already disrupted transportation, forcing the closure of parts of highways in the middle of a five-day holiday period. The typhoon, located about 110 kilometers west-southwest of Hachijo Island, was moving northeast at a speed of 20 km per hour. However, the Asian Games venue Aichi-Nagoya has so far not witnessed any adverse weather patterns. The weather office predicts some impact for later in the day. As a precaution organisers postponed the equestrian eventing competition until Tuesday. The typhoon, moving northward, could bring heavy rain through Tuesday in eastern and northeastern Japan, while a linear rainband may form over Shizuoka Prefecture and the Izu Islands, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Shifting focus to action, India's medal run in shooting continued as the trio of Rudrankksh Patil, Parth Mane and Himanshu Dhillon secured a silver medal in the men's 10 m air rifle team event at the ongoing Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya on Monday. Team India managed a silver with a score of 1890.1, short of first-place China's 1899.0. The bronze medal went to South Korea, with a score of 1841.4. This marks their third medal of the Asian Games 2026, all of them silver medals coming in shooting. In the men's 10 air rifle individual qualifying round, also acting as the team final, Rudrankksh finished in third place with 631.8, with Himanshu finishing seventh (630.0). Parth, with a score of 628.3, finished in 11th place. Rudrankksh and Himanshu made it to the individual final as well, which is scheduled for later. The trio combined to produce a silver-winning score of 1890.1 as a team. (Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 03:26 AM
ATREE's Himalaya Initiative: Using Technology to Predict and Mitigate Natural Disasters

ATREE's Himalaya Initiative: Using Technology to Predict and Mitigate Natural Disasters

Kamal Bawa is the founder of Bengaluru-based environmental think tank Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), and a distinguished professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Bawa has done extensive work on biodiversity conservation and climate change in the Himalayas. He has published over 200 research papers, authored 10 books, and is the editor of two international journals on biodiversity. He is also the winner of the Gunnerus Prize in Sustainability Science, the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity, and the Linnean Medal. Kamal Bawa spoke to indianexpress.com on ATREE’s Himalaya Initiative, how tech could be used to predict disasters such as the recent Nepal-Tibet floods, and how AI is changing the face of biodiversity conservation. Edited excerpt: Venkatesh Kannaiah: Give us a broad overview of ATREE’s Himalaya Initiative. Kamal Bawa: The Himalayan region is a critically important landscape, not only for India, but for the whole world. For India, it is one of the most biodiverse regions. Almost two-thirds of India’s biodiversity is in the Himalayas. Almost all of the country’s major rivers originate in the Himalayas, which are also home to sacred places revered by hundreds of millions of people. Himalayas are fragile and unstable. The land is constantly moving. Population and infrastructure are expanding rapidly, and there is a high rate of deforestation and land degradation. ATREE’s Himalaya programme has five components. The first is conservation planning. We look at how we can avert the continuing loss of biodiversity by equipping local communities. The second is restoring degraded land. The third is nature-based livelihoods, because until we address the livelihood needs of the people living there, our efforts towards conservation and restoration would be piecemeal. The fourth component looks at developing local human resources to manage the change we are witnessing in these landscapes. And finally, we look at developing evidence-based policies and governance frameworks. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us how you are using tech in your programmes to increase impact. Kamal Bawa: We focus on geospatial mapping of land-use change, a strong component of our conservation programme. It helps us monitor biodiversity and in conservation planning. Another emerging tech is bioacoustics. We can record and analyse the sounds of animals, birds and insects. We can also track animals’ movements. These sounds can be analysed and assigned to particular species, say, birds and insects. It allows us to determine the changing composition of various species in the ecosystem and changes brought by land use. With bioacoustics, the data can be collected rapidly and analysed using AI models. ATREE has developed SNAIL, a digital platform and a resource hub for environmental education in India. We will soon be launching the Plants of India portal with detailed information about Himalayan plants. ATREE has also participated in the India Biodiversity Portal, which has comprehensive information about biodiversity. We have a multi-decade regeneration programme in the Himalayas. The landscape needs regeneration at scale across many socio-environmental and economic sectors, such as health, nature-based enterprises, agriculture, finance, and industry. We are developing an AI-guided learning platform to develop the human resources needed to heal and conserve the Himalayas. Venkatesh Kannaiah: How does the recent Nepal-Tibet flood affect biodiversity in the Himalayas? How tough is it to predict such events? Kamal Bawa: The Nepal-Tibet flood was caused by a massive glacier collapse in Tibet. A huge amount of ice and rock broke off and fell over a kilometre onto the valley floor, damming it and then unleashing flash floods downstream. In terms of biodiversity, this kind of event erodes riverbanks and forest cover along the flood path, buries vegetation and aquatic habitats under debris, kills fish and river wildlife, and it can take decades for the ecosystem to recover. Such events are very difficult to predict because we still don’t have a reliable way of knowing which slopes will produce a rock-ice avalanche. That doesn’t mean that they cannot be predicted. There was a similar disaster in the Alps a few years ago, but early warning systems alerted agencies and communities. The warning came seven or eight hours before the disaster, so it could be averted. There were only a couple of villages in the way, unlike the Himalayas. The Alps incident was also smaller in scale. We need satellite monitoring of glaciers and unstable slopes. Satellites can track glacial lakes and steep, fractured terrain for signs of instability — ice movement, crack formation, lake swelling — giving days or weeks of warning, well before a collapse actually happens. Constant monitoring with drones is also required. Much more needs to be invested in these technologies. Then there are cross-border real-time sensor networks. The Nepal disaster happened specifically because the hazard originated in China, which had no shared data feed with Nepal. Putting sensors upstream on both sides of a border and sharing data instantly is the single biggest fix experts are now pointing to. There is also AI-based multi-hazard mapping. Instead of viewing glacial lakes, snowmelt and monsoon flooding as separate problems, we need to realise that these work in tandem. Machine learning can combine all three into one integrated risk map, flagging combinations of conditions that make a disaster more likely. In this case, the monitoring stations were swept away before they could transmit the alerts. So we need to place more rugged sensors further upstream or pair them with instant satellite/cellular relay, rather than local hardware alone. The Nepal-Tibet disaster is not a big shock to people working on environmental issues in the Himalayas. We fear that the intensity of such disasters could increase. The question remains: why are we not investing more in disaster science, disaster risk management, and examining our policies? Look at the hydroelectric power dam construction in the Himalayas. They were planned 20 to 30 years ago. We did not know much about climate change then. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about the use of tech in climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Kamal Bawa: As for mitigation, which is about reducing emissions and the pressure on the ecosystem, there are multiple ways. There is a focus on decentralised energy generation where micro-hydro and solar microgrids are electrifying remote Himalayan villages to reduce pressure on forests. Using remote sensing for carbon accounting, satellite-based forest cover and biomass monitoring lets policymakers track carbon stocks in hard-to-access mountain forests without costly ground surveys. GIS-based land-use planning helps target reforestation and avoid maladaptive infrastructure (roads, hydropower siting) in ecologically sensitive zones. For climate adaptation, SMS/app-based weather and crop advisories, soil-moisture sensors, and digital extension services are reaching smallholder farmers in mountain valleys, helping change planting calendars and crop choice as monsoon patterns become erratic. Satellite/weather-data-triggered payouts are being piloted for mountain farmers who lose harvests to erratic rainfall or flash floods, a kind of tech-enabled financial resilience tool. Satellite programmes track glacier retreat, snow cover, and glacial lake formation across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, at a scale ground teams can’t match, feeding water-availability forecasts for both agriculture and hydropower planning. As for climate resilience, there are Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) early warning systems and sensors that detect rapid water-level or seismic changes and trigger downstream alerts. There are projects in the Himalayas which are applying AI to model compound water-climate risks (floods, droughts, glacier melt) at finer spatial resolution than traditional climate models allow. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about technologies that are globally changing the face of biodiversity exploration, monitoring and conservation. Kamal Bawa: One is environmental DNA, where scientists can now detect which species are present in an area by just testing a scoop of water or soil or even air for traces of genetic material. There are AI-powered camera traps and acoustic sensors. The camera traps and audio recorders left in the field can automatically identify species from images or sounds using machine learning, cutting down what used to be months of manual review. This also lets researchers track animal movements, poaching activity, or population trends at a scale that would be impossible with human observers alone. Satellites and drones using remote sensing are being used to monitor deforestation and degradation. They can also monitor loss of productivity of ecosystems and, to some extent, ecosystem services. There are citizen science applications and data collection platforms too. Apps like iNaturalist or eBird let citizens log species sightings with photos and GPS coordinates, feeding directly into shared databases that scientists and policymakers use. This dramatically expands the number of ‘eyes on the ground’ and builds public engagement. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about instances where village or forest communities could use tech in biodiversity conservation. Kamal Bawa: ATREE has built a Digital Knowledge Hub pooling everything learned across Himalayan communities on biodiversity, climate, and conservation, open to scientists, local communities, and the public. It combines ATREE’s field data, historical records, open databases like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and iNaturalist, and citizen science, with AI tools being built to make all of it easy to search and use. The core tool is HBIS (Himalayan Biodiversity Information System), an interactive online map that works in any web browser. It calculates indicators of change for any place in the Himalayas – a village, a district, or a state – and whether a species is doing better or worse. We have various components of the community in mind, but our emphasis is on how rural communities can use the information for their own livelihoods. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about instances where ATREE faced challenges in implementing tech tools or platforms. Kamal Bawa: We have tech now which allows us to ask sophisticated questions and allows us to gather information efficiently, but the challenge is the type of information society really needs, and what local communities need to use the resources that are available to them. ATREE works pan-India, so the things that work in one region are not applicable to others. So there is a cost of doing things over and again. The socio-cultural milieu in which the technologies operate is different, and the languages are different. Venkatesh Kannaiah: AI and biodiversity conservation. Tell us about instances of how it could solve old problems. Kamal Bawa: I’m very mindful of all the concerns about AI, but I feel there are tremendous opportunities. Earlier, field teams could collect millions of camera-trap images and hours of audio, but people to review it were scarce, and it could take years to manually sift through the data. Now, AI image and sound classifiers sort and tag that data automatically, getting us near real-time species counts. Earlier, rangers fighting poachers and protecting vast reserves had to patrol essentially at random. Now, tools like PAWS (Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security) use machine learning on historical poaching and patrol data to predict where poaching is most likely to happen next. Wildlife trafficking has moved from physical markets to e-commerce sites and social media, where manually monitoring millions of listings for illegal ivory, pangolin scales, or exotic pets was practically impossible. AI systems now continuously scan these platforms for suspicious listings and flag them for investigators. Earlier, illegal logging or land clearing was discovered by satellite months or years after it happened, after the damage was done. Now, AI systems flag forest loss within days, giving enforcement teams and conservation groups a chance to respond fast.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 03:26 AM
AI Reshaping Coding: Spec-Driven Development and Broadening Skills

AI Reshaping Coding: Spec-Driven Development and Broadening Skills

“Vibe coding is not going away,” said Darko Mesaroš, Distinguished Developer Advocate at AWS. But for developers who know what they are building, Mesaroš feels there is a more disciplined approach: spec-driven development. With artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly changing how software is built, Mesaroš believes the role of a developer is expanding rather than shrinking. During his recent visit to India, Mesaroš sat down with Indianexpress.com to discuss how AI is reshaping coding. In the interaction, Mesaroš shed light on the growing use of spec-driven development alongside ‘vibe coding’, the limitations developers continue to face with AI agents, and what AWS is doing to bolster India’s developer ecosystem. Mesaroš has spent about 11 years at AWS after serving over two decades in tech, systems administration, and software development, lending his voice a heft of authority in the domain. He said that AI has changed how code gets written, but not the essence of software engineering. “Software engineering, as a practice, is so much more than coding,” he said. “Writing code was just one part of it — a big part, because it took the most effort — but it’s only part of the picture.” He added that developers now have AI coding tools, such as AWS’s Kiro, to help write code, but the discipline itself still depends on “understanding your customer base, systems design, scaling, operations.” Mesaroš, in fact, predicts that for the next few years developers will need to broaden their skill sets. “I see that software developers are going to expand their skill sets slightly more than just being strictly coders,” he said, describing the shift as one toward people “who are actually building software and understanding a lot more than just how to write a good function in Rust.” Kiro, an AI-powered coding tool from AWS, is an integrated development environment (IDE) that focuses on spec-driven development (SDD), a more structured way of building software. A large part of the conversation with Mesaroš revolved around Kiro, which focuses on defining requirements and design decisions before code is generated. He contrasted this with ‘vibe coding’, an iterative back-and-forth with an AI agent that can be useful for exploration, prototyping and experimentation. Mesaroš offered a nuanced take, saying that SDD is not meant to replace vibe coding, which he views as a legitimate, if different, way of working. “It’s an integral part of software development because it’s not just about — you have to write this complicated thing every time you do anything. Vibe coding is there to help you explore, build prototypes, and experiment with what you want to build.” However, he argued that the shift toward specs matters when developers want to ensure that what they are implementing is actually what they intended to build. “Instead of an unstructured back-and-forth with an AI agent, spec-driven development turns the process into ‘a contract between a developer and an agent of what needs to be produced. Mesaroš linked this directly to concerns about quality: “We’ve seen so much AI slop out there… I actually mean AI slop applications, and we all know what they look like when we see them. So spec-driven development absolutely helps prevent that.” When asked about the current limitations of AI tools for developers, Mesaroš highlighted the lack of persistent context across sessions. He said developers previously had to repeatedly explain their preferences, tech stack and other requirements every time they started a new session. He credited Kiro Crew, AWS’s open-source AI agent orchestrator, with addressing this through a memory feature that learns from past sessions. “I have 273 lessons Kiro Crew has learned from me interacting with it,” he said, adding that the tool has picked up on his own coding habits over time. He also pointed to cost as an ongoing consideration, noting that Kiro’s “auto” model routes simpler tasks to cheaper models rather than defaulting to the largest one available. Now that AI agents are taking more of the coding workload, Mesaroš asserted that the ultimate responsibility stays with the developer. He went on to cite Kiro Crew’s own growth as an open-source project with over 10,000 pull requests. “Every pull request, every software change… was approved by a human, so the responsibility still lies on the developer out there,” he said. When asked what his advice will be to developers who want to stay relevant in the AI era, Mesaroš urged all to broaden and deepen their skills simultaneously — understanding system architecture and infrastructure while also using AI tools to dig deeper into how the systems they build actually work. “I think broadening and deepening your skill set at the same time should be a focus of developers,” he said, “and not just learning how to write a specific language or a library or a framework.” During the conversation, the distinguished developer advocate also outlined AWS’s investment in India’s developer community, including a global commitment of more than $500 million toward student cloud and AI training and an AWS Builder Loft planned for India. He shared that over 10 million people in India have gone through AWS training and certification programmes, alongside a $13 billion-plus Amazon investment in AI and cloud infrastructure between 2026 and 2030 announced by CEO Andy Jassy during a recent visit. However, on developer adoption trends specifically in India, he offered a measured response. “I wouldn’t say there’s any specific nature of developers in India compared to everything else, but I see the enthusiasm and just the care of developers who are using these tools to actually build some cool things.”
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 03:20 AM
Election Commission Issues SIR Notices to Top Bureaucrats in Delhi

Election Commission Issues SIR Notices to Top Bureaucrats in Delhi

Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and several top serving and retired IAS officers, including Secretaries to the Government of India, are among the 31.63 lakh electors in Delhi who face Special Intensive Revision (SIR) notice to prove their eligibility to remain on the electoral rolls after their names were flagged in the Election Commission’s centralised software over discrepancies, or other reasons, records show. CBI director Praveen Sood’s details could also not be mapped with the previous SIR roll, as per the records. The Election Commission on Friday uploaded the boothwise list of the electors for the issuance of notices for either failing to map themselves with the electoral roll of the last intensive revision (“unmapped with last SIR”), or those having “logical discrepancies” in their details in the current and last rolls. Sandhu, who is one of the three-member Election Commission, made to one of the lists of electors from two booths in New Moti Bagh, the government residential colony that is home to the senior-most office-bearers and bureaucrats. His name has been flagged for a notice for “self name mismatch”, meaning that his name in the last intensive revision, which happened over the early 2000s across states, and current records differ. Confirming that Sandhu had been flagged for “discrepancy in name”, the office of the Electoral Registration Officer of Delhi Cantt constituency said in a statement Sunday: “In the present case, the details, facts and documents furnished by the elector have been duly verified. The electoral entry pertaining to Dr S.S. Sandhu, Election Commissioner of India, has already been validated and kept in the list for inclusion in the final electoral roll.” Among the top bureaucrats who are in the list of the electors against whom SIR notices are being issued for discrepancies and “no mapping” are Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Principal Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister Ajay Kumar Sood, Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Secretary Nivedita Shukla Verma, Fisheries Secretary Abhilaksh Likhi, and his wife Sukriti Likhi, also a serving secretary at the Department of Ex-service Men’s Welfare, Fertiliser Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra, and Land Resources Secretary Narendra Bhooshan. They are among the people who remained “unmapped with the Last SIR”. The bureaucrats against whom SIR notices are being issued for mismatch of names include Expenditure Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) K Sanjay Murthy, a former IAS officer, faces the notice for “parent name mismatch”. Several retired bureaucrats and officials are among the persons against whom SIR notices are being issued for discrepancies and “no mapping”. Among them are former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, former Election Commissioner Arun Goel, former JNU vice-chancellor and UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, former Animal Husbandry Secretary Alka Upadhyay, former Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, his wife and former CISF director-general Nina Singh, former Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, and former Environment Secretary Leena Nandan. Their names appear on the list of 594 electors for whom notices have been issued at the two New Moti Bagh polling booths under the Delhi Cantt Assembly constituency, where most top bureaucrats have their official residences. Reacting to reports of the notices issued to “VIP” electors, the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer said in a statement on Sunday: “All stakeholders are hereby informed that issue of notice does not mean that their names will be deleted from the electoral rolls of NCT of Delhi. System generated notices are being issued to the above said categories to correct their data in ECINET. No name can be deleted without giving an opportunity to being heard and a proper, speaking, and appealable order.” The EC had published the draft roll of Delhi after weeding out 47.56 lakh electors, having declared them absent, shifted, dead or duplicate, on August 31. After that, the EC’s centralised ECINET portal began generating notices to those on the draft roll. In a statement on September 19, the Delhi CEO had said that notices were being issued to those not linked to the last intensive revision and those with “logical discrepancies”. “Electors have to submit reply/requisite documents to the ERO [Electoral Registration Officer] concerned on receipt of notice. Disposal of notices will be completed by 29.10.2026…As on date, 31,63,930 notices have been generated and are being delivered to electors concerned of NCT of Delhi,” the Delhi CEO office had said. Those whose names have been deleted or flagged have till October 30 to file claims and objections. The final roll of Delhi is scheduled to be published on November 4, as per the EC schedule. Hearings are being held across the city at the offices of Electoral Registration Officers, who are generally Sub-Divisional Magistrate rank officials and the statutory authority for electoral registration, where electors who have received notices are required to submit documents to establish their eligibility. The Indian Express reported on Sunday that Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj, and former Delhi BJP chief Virendra Kumar Sachdeva are among the 33 lakh electors in the Capital who have been asked to validate their details. Starting with Bihar in 2025, the EC has rolled out the SIR in 30 states/Union Territories so far, leading to the deletion of 13 crore names in the draft lists. For the first time, the EC has used a centralised system to generate notices to electors, which has led to the deletion of lakhs of names so far. In West Bengal, 27.16 lakh names were deleted after being flagged by the EC’s algorithms. (With inputs from Devansh Mittal)
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NorthEast Now
Sep 21, 2026, 03:10 AM
Manipur Security Forces Foil Abduction Attempt, Arrest Suspected Insurgents, Recover Arms and Narcotics

Manipur Security Forces Foil Abduction Attempt, Arrest Suspected Insurgents, Recover Arms and Narcotics

: Security forces and police carried out a series of operations across Manipur on September 20, foiling an alleged abduction attempt, arresting several suspected insurgent cadres and recovering arms, ammunition and narcotics, officials said. Police in Moirang rescued a West Bengal resident who was allegedly abducted shortly after arriving at Imphal Airport . The victim, identified as Md Wasim Akram, was reportedly being taken away in an Assam-registered Bolero when he managed to escape near Naranseina. Police said Akram pulled the vehicle’s handbrake, fled from the vehicle and sought assistance from security personnel in the area. The driver, identified as 24-year-old Makakmayum Imtiyazur Rahaman of Wangoi Mamang Leikai, was arrested in connection with the incident. Police have launched an investigation to identify and apprehend the other alleged accomplices. In separate intelligence-based operations, the Imphal West Commando unit and 33 Assam Rifles arrested two alleged active members of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) who were reportedly involved in extortion activities. The arrested individuals were identified as 45-year-old Heikham Amujao Singh, who was apprehended in the North AOC area, and 46-year-old Athokpam Robinkumar Singh, who was arrested from his residence at Ningomthong Kitna Panung. Security personnel recovered a 9mm pistol along with 12 live rounds during the operations. In another joint operation by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Imphal West Commandos, security personnel searched an area in Phayeng under Lamsang police station and arrested 23-year-old Angom Manikanta Singh, who was identified as an associate of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The operation led to the recovery of one No. 36 high-explosive (HE) grenade, two Chinese hand grenades, two detonators and 18 rounds of live ammunition. Meanwhile, Bishnupur district commandos arrested 35-year-old Sanasam Gobin Singh, described by officials as an active cadre of the RPF/PLA, within the Kumbi police station area. A separate joint operation by Imphal West Commandos and 33 Assam Rifles also uncovered an arms cache at Sajirok under Patsoi police station. The recovered weapons and equipment included five 9mm pistols, a Carbine Machine Gun (CMG), a Pump-Action Gun (PAG), eight single-barrel guns, one hand grenade, six TSMs, a Baofeng wireless handset and 46 assorted rounds of live ammunition. Security forces also reported two separate drug seizures involving brown sugar and WY amphetamine tablets. In Bishnupur, personnel attempted to intercept a suspicious Maruti Swift near Terakhongshangbi Bazar. The vehicle reportedly fled from the checkpoint and was later found abandoned and locked at Kwakta Maronglou. A search of the vehicle resulted in the recovery of four packets containing approximately 2.1 kg of brown sugar. In Senapati district, a joint team comprising police, CRPF and Assam Rifles arrested three people in connection with another narcotics case. The arrested individuals included two Assam residents, identified as 23-year-old Rohim Ali and 48-year-old Anowar Hussain Laskar. Their interrogation subsequently led to the arrest of Md Nawaz Khan of Mayang Imphal. Authorities seized around 2.3 kg of WY tablets, an Assam-registered Bolero and ?5,000 in cash from the suspects. Separately, the Koireng-led United National Liberation Front (UNLF) issued a clarification concerning the August 11 arrest of Khundongbam Motilal by Thoubal Police and 46 Assam Rifles. In a statement signed by its Secretary of Publicity, M Shak-Hen, the outfit said neither the UNLF nor its armed wing, the Manipur People’s Army (MPA), had any association with Motilal. The statement was issued in response to the circumstances surrounding his arrest, according to the outfit.
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Sep 21, 2026, 03:07 AM
PVR INOX Refuses Cash Payment, Sparks Debate Over Legal Tender

PVR INOX Refuses Cash Payment, Sparks Debate Over Legal Tender

A person who went to watch a movie at PVR INOX has an argument with the multiplex. The customer says that the theater refused to accept cash at the movie ticket and food counter. The confusion over payment became a matter of conversation. This incident has raised the question whether one can refuse to accept legal tender (legally valid currency) as payment for business service. The case is of PVR INOX at Palladium Mall in Ahmedabad. A lawyer of Gujarat High Court has sent a legal notice to the multiplex for refusing to accept cash at the ticket and food counter here and pressing for payment only from UPI. Advocate Utkarsh Dave from Ahmedabad went to watch the movie on 13 September 2026. He alleged that the staff at the ticket counter and later at the food and beverage counter flatly refused to accept payment in cash from him and only paid through UPI. According to the Times of India report, Utkarsh said that he had no legal notice from UPI after that day.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 02:42 AM
Rajinikanth's Lingaa: A Film that Marked the End of KS Ravikumar's Directorial Career

Rajinikanth's Lingaa: A Film that Marked the End of KS Ravikumar's Directorial Career

Directors Suresh Krissna and KS Ravikumar should be highly indebted to “Siruthai” Siva. If not for the latter’s Annaatthe (2021), the two veteran filmmakers would have had to battle it out among themselves for the award for the most appalling Rajinikanth film ever. Although ‘Thalaivar’ has created his fair share of duds over the decades, Suresh’s Baba (2002) and Ravikumar’s Lingaa (2014) are in a league of their own. Thanks to Siva’s Annaatthe — though he later outdid himself with the even more dreadful Kanguva (2024) — the veteran directors could heave a sigh of relief. Just imagine… how ironic it would have been that Suresh and Ravikumar, who created Baashha (1995) and Padayappa (1999), respectively — two of Rajinikanth’s most celebrated movies even now — are also noted as the ones to give ‘Thalaivar’ his biggest letdowns. Must Read | A ‘Pramod Pappanic Approach’: How Mammootty, Nayanthara’s Thaskaraveeran went horribly wrong While one could cut Baba some slack, as it disappointed the audience due to its highly spiritual theme and because it did not feature what people typically expect in a Rajinikanth film, Lingaa was a proper letdown, as it had everything for a “superstar movie.” From a massive budget and gorgeous heroines significantly younger than the hero to an ambitious story, melodramatic moments, comedic tracks, and a “Rajinikanth vs all the villains” narrative, Lingaa had it all to be a typical ‘Thalaivar’ mass masala. But the movie instead unknowingly exposed the hollowness of that template. Lingaa (Rajinikanth) is a small-time thief who commits petty crimes to make a living. But circumstances take him to the small village of Solaiyur, where people still highly regard his grandfather, civil engineer Raja Lingeswaran (also played by Rajinikanth), for building a dam that is essential to their existence. However, both the dam and the village’s existence are now in jeopardy, and people believe only Raja Lingeswaran’s heir can save them. Although uninterested at first, Lingaa eventually has a change of heart and sets out to be their saviour. Even if it’s not exceptional, a movie’s opening should at least be decent. However, Lingaa opens with an overview of the dam, where its poor visual effects are immediately apparent, almost foreshadowing what’s to unfold. After the unimpactful opening, Rajinikanth makes his entrance in a mediocre song where the visuals and setting appear far too similar to those of Sivaji: The Boss’ (2007) hit track “Style.” Making matters worse is the subsequent poorly-crafted comedic scenes that fail to elicit any laughter. Whenever he is in trouble, Lingaa starts thinking hard while twisting his hair, an action his gangmates describe as him winding up his brain. It’s unfortunate that a hitmaker like Ravikumar thought this would appear cool. It’s hard to say what’s worse: the cringeworthy romantic scenes featuring Rajinikanth and Anushka Shetty, who is 31 years younger than him, or Thalaivar’s makeup, which is so disastrous that throughout Lingaa’s scenes, it feels as if Rajinikanth supplied only his head for the movie and the rest was created with CGI. ICYMI | Mohanlal masterfully played MGR in Iruvar, then went on to look like his photocopy in a dud AR Rahman’s soulless songs and background score only make the action drama worse. Even Rajinikanth’s voice sounds so weird that one can’t blame someone for doubting whether it’s computer-generated or dubbed by someone else. According to The Hindu , Lingaa is inspired by the life of renowned British civil engineer John Pennycuick, who built the Mullaperiyar dam. While this premise has potential, the shoddy writing and even shoddier filmmaking, where a large number of scenes appear packed with unplanned and hence poor VFX, ruin its possibilities. Just take a look at Raja Lingeswaran’s intro scene, where he fights a bunch of rivals. The train he travels in looks pretty much like a toy train, with even the dark clouds above appearing unpolished. Although Raja Lingeswaran’s scenes are set in the pre-Independence era, the way the people talk sounds as if they have time-travelled from the present. Despite production designer Sabu Cyril’s efforts to establish the era well, Ravikumar’s directionless making ruins them, tarnishing the visual quality. Don’t Miss | Law and Order movie review: Ranjith turns Mammootty’s most iconic character into a joke Lingaa makes things even weirder than the Rajinikanth-Anushka romance by casting Sonakshi Sinha, who is about 37 years younger than the superstar, opposite him in Raja Lingeswaran’s scenes. Here, too, the male and female leads have zero chemistry. But nothing comes close to the climax fight sequence, marred by what can only be described as one of the biggest VFX disasters in modern mainstream Indian cinema, on par with what Adipurush (2023) achieved years later. From shots of Lingaa chasing villain Nagabooshan (Jagapati Babu) on a bike to them fighting in a hot air balloon, the visuals look as if created by a child who just started using a computer. At one moment, Lingaa even scissor-kicks a bomb while hanging mid-air from the balloon. Also, who can forget Lingaa jumping off a cliff, flying for a few metres, and landing on top of the balloon, almost as if he’s a cartoon character? I never thought I would see a live version of Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner, but thanks to Rajinikanth and Ravikumar, that happened. The early 2010s were tough for Rajinikanth fans. Despite beginning the decade with director S Shankar’s blockbuster sci-fi actioner Enthiran (2010), he couldn’t deliver anything worthwhile until Pa Ranjith’s Kabali (2016). Soon after Enthiran, Rajinikanth was signed on to headline director KS Ravikumar’s period film Rana, where he was supposed to share the screen with Deepika Padukone. However, he suffered from exhaustion on the first day of the shoot, leading to multiple hospitalisations over the next few weeks and a prolonged health scare. Eventually, Rana was shelved. While Rajinikanth fans were hopeful to catch a glimpse of him in Anubhav Sinha’s Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Ra One (2011), where Thalaivar was reported to reprise his character Chitti from Enthiran in a brief cameo, the superhero film only dampened their spirits further. Even though it’s still a mystery whether Rajinikanth actually appeared in the movie or if it was created using a body double, the visuals looked very sloppy, much to the disappointment of his fans. They were further shattered when Kochadaiiyaan (2014), marking his younger daughter Soundarya’s directorial debut, bombed at the box office. Touted as India’s first photorealistic motion-capture film, Kochadaiiyaan finally brought together Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone. Penned by KS Ravikumar, the period actioner featured music composed by AR Rahman. Despite its ambitious setting and the significant amount of money that went into its production, the movie opened to largely negative reviews, particularly for its shoddy animation. But nothing came close to the heartbreak that Lingaa delivered. His first proper feature film since Enthiran, Lingaa was highly hyped, particularly since it marked his reunion with KS Ravikumar, which should have happened in Rana. Given that both their previous collaborations — Padayappa (1999), arguably the finest example of “Rajinikanth in his element,” and Muthu (1995) — were blockbusters, fans were excited for this reunion. Although his Kamal Haasan-led Manmadan Ambu (2010) fared decently at the box office, Ravikumar was also desperate for a bona fide hit like his Dasavathaaram (2008) and Aadhavan (2009), since his more recent films Jaggubhai (2010) and Policegiri (2013) had failed to create any impact. Nevertheless, not only did his dreams shatter with Lingaa’s underperformance and negative reactions, but the action drama pretty much marked the end of Ravikumar’s directorial career. Anyway, that’s all for this week. We “ villu ” be back next week to tell you about a movie that both retired actor and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay and his fans desperately want to erase from existence. Memories of Blunder is a column in which we dissect some of the worst South Indian movies and performances of all time. No offence to anyone whose name surfaces here. They may all have potential, but they blew it that one time. However, don’t play the song if you can’t face the music, right?
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Siasat News✓
Sep 21, 2026, 02:17 AM
Election Commission Issues Notices to Prominent Figures Over Voter Discrepancies

Election Commission Issues Notices to Prominent Figures Over Voter Discrepancies

Former deputy prime minister LK Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and Election Commissioner SS Sandhu are among the many prominent figures in the list of voters who have been issued notices for “discrepancies” in their details furnished under the SIR exercise, officials said on Sunday. After the publication of draft rolls of over 97 lakh voters under the SIR, 33.13 lakh notices were being issued over “discrepancies” in details furnished by people in their enumeration forms. Most notices were issued for voter details not matching with the information in the last SIR in 2002. In a statement issued late Sunday evening, the office of the electoral registration officer (ERO) of the New Delhi assembly constituency said Sandhu’s details have been validated and his name will be included in the final electoral roll after verification of the documents submitted by him. “The electoral entry pertaining to S S Sandhu, Election Commissioner of India, has already been validated and kept in the list for inclusion in the Final Electoral Roll of AC-38 (Delhi Cantt.),” the ERO said. Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, who along with his wife was issued notices under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls under the “unmapped with last SIR” category, lashed out at the EC and called the SIR “special intensive deletion” of votes. The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, however, maintained that system-generated notices were being issued to voters with discrepancies to correct their data in ECINET and stressed that “there is no existential crisis as is being brought out in social and print”. The list of voters issued notices has been uploaded on the website of the Delhi CEO. Those who have already been issued notice or who are to be issued one soon include Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, ex Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, former JNU VC M Jagadesh Kumar, former Delhi LG Najeeb Jung, former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, former army chief Upendra Dwevedi and CBI Director Praveen Sood, officials said. Most of the prominent voters to whom notices were issued come under the New Delhi Assembly seat. The Delhi CEO Office said the issuance of a notice does not mean that the voter’s name will be deleted from the electoral rolls. Advani, 98, his daughter Pratibha and daughter-in-law Geetika have been issued notices after their names could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR electoral roll, while his son Jayant has cleared the mapping exercise. All four are voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency. Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Jaishankar, who are voters in the Sunehri Bagh area of the New Delhi assembly constituency, have also received notices citing “unmapped with last SIR”. Former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh, whose voter records carry the address of the vice president’s residence, have also been served notices. Election Commissioner S S Sandhu was issued a notice over a mismatch in his name, while his son Damanbir has been served a notice over a mismatch in his parent’s name. They are voters in the Delhi Cantonment assembly constituency. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has also been issued a notice citing “unmapped with last SIR”. Former Delhi deputy chief minister Sisodia, his wife Seema and their son Meer have also been issued notices. While the poll body has not cited the reason for sending a notice to Sisodia, his son Meer’s notice points to a “discrepancy in his parent’s name”, according to officials. The reason cited in his wife Seema’s notice is “mismatch in her own name”. Poll officials said no name can be deleted without giving the voter an opportunity to be heard and a proper speaking and appealable order. “Therefore, there is no existential crisis as is being brought out in social and print media,” the Delhi CEO Office said. Upon receipt of notices, the voters concerned may submit their replies and requisite documents to the ERO or BLO. The name of late economist and former chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Bibek Debroy also appeared in the list of voters being issued notices for “discrepancies”. Debroy, who was a voter in the New Delhi assembly constituency, died in November 2024. His entry was marked as “unmapped with last SIR”. A senior poll officer said, “We are aware of his death and now his name will be excluded from the final list.” A senior Delhi poll officer said the notices were issued based on “logical discrepancies” in the details furnished by voters in their enumeration forms. Confirming that the names of many prominent voters, including Advani, Jaishankar, Dhankar and Sisodia, figured in the lists of voters who have been issued notices, he said their names would be included in the final electoral rolls after due process of verification of facts and documents furnished by the voters. The process of due verification of facts and documents is underway and validation of entries is being done accordingly, he added. Many prominent voters in the city, including top government functionaries, bureaucrats and politicians, have been issued notices under the ongoing SIR exercise. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, AAP national convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior advocate and former Union minister Kapil Sibal have also been issued notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms, officials said. Gupta’s entry was, however, validated after verification of documents, and her name has been parked for inclusion in the final voters’ list of the Shalimar Bagh constituency to be published on November 4. The CEO Office said the notices were being issued as part of the claims and objections phase of the SIR, which will conclude on September 30. The voters concerned have been asked to submit their replies and supporting documents to the Electoral Registration Officers of their respective Assembly constituencies by October 29.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 01:42 AM
US Takes Step to Punish India for Pursuing Economic Development

US Takes Step to Punish India for Pursuing Economic Development

The United States has taken one more step in its ongoing campaign to punish India for asserting her national interest in the pursuit of economic development. The United States Congress has voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act 2026. This authorises the US President to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on goods from the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas, namely, China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan. America’s European allies have been exempted on the pretext that they are trying to reduce their consumption of Russian energy. President Donald Trump now has the power to act. He will probably use this weapon to strike a range of deals with the five countries before, in fact, utilising his power in full. President Trump began taking economic actions against India in 2017 when he ended the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and began increasing tariffs on a range of commodities and products. That process went through its ups and downs but there has been no retreat. Actions taken against India have remained in place. Some threatened actions have not yet been taken but not called off either. Pressure on India to stop oil imports from Venezuela was ended after the US staged a coup and changed the regime in that country. Now India is being asked to buy Venezuelan oil. While some of Trump’s geopolitical initiatives have unsettled New Delhi, with his hosting of the Pakistani Field Marshal for lunch at the White House constituting the nadir, it is the geoeconomic sanctions that will really have a long-term impact on the relationship. In this context, some analysts have suggested a “de-Americanisation” of Indian foreign policy. To an extent this has already happened. India’s impressive hosting of the BRICS Summit, with both China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in attendance, was certainly a message to Western critics of the group. However, there are objective limits to “de-Americanisation” set by economic and business links. The fact is that the US remains an important market for Indian exports of goods and services. The people-to-people and business-to-business connection is strong and enduring, though it is entirely possible for state-to-state relations to deteriorate despite robust people and business links. The US, in this regard, is in a league of its own, with large sections of the Indian power elite emigrating to the US. The defence relationship, too, has become important, but India has options. The growing defence partnership with countries like France, Japan, Britain, Sweden and other European countries, as well as India’s atmanirbharata in defence policy, can help reduce India’s dependence not just on the US but also Russia and Israel. What is entirely possible is the ending of any “strategic” dependence on the US that may have been thought of after the signing of the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement. That dependence was built on a new sense of trust that we owe to the leadership of President George Bush. With President Trump, trust is gone. Consider, as an aside, the relationship between the US and China. It is a relationship bereft of trust but economic links keep it going, even after it has become more adversarial. In 2017, Trump entered office declaring that he would “decouple” the US economy from China. On Labour Day in September 2020, Trump declared from the White House: “So when you mention the word ‘decouple’, it’s an interesting word. So we lose billions of dollars, and if we didn’t do business with them, we wouldn’t lose billions of dollars. It’s called ‘decoupling’. So you’ll start thinking about it. You’ll start thinking.” The idea was quickly picked up by President Joe Biden and a bipartisan consensus seemed to be building in favour of “decoupling”. The Washington DC think-tank and policy circuit went into high gear theorising and estimating the costs of “decoupling”, till Biden’s own administration officials realised that decoupling was a fantasy. “The US will assert ourselves when our vital interests are at stake. But we do not seek to ‘decouple’ our economy from China’s,” cautioned Janet Yellen, then US treasury secretary, adding, “A full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries. It would be destabilising for the rest of the world.” Yellen’s caution was followed up by a clearer statement by the US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan. In a lecture delivered a week later, on April 27, 2023, at the influential Washington DC think tank, Brookings Institution, Sullivan ended a long and substantial address on US economic strategy aimed at reviving and revitalising the US economy, reasserting US global economic leadership, and so on, with the categorical statement: “We are for de-risking and diversifying, not decoupling” from China. Indeed, that is precisely what India has been trying to do with respect to all her external dependencies — defence, energy, trade and manpower. Over the past year, the Indian strategy has been one of “de-risking” from the United States. The US seeks to de-risk from China. India has to de-risk from both China and the US. In the foreseeable future, India will have to deal with the twin challenge of managing one major power in decline and another major power on the rise. Few countries have been in this situation before. When the US was rising and Britain was declining, the rest of the world was still dealing with a “hegemonic West”. A rising US did seek to aggressively displace Britain, creating international institutions in which it ensured its own domination, but the declining power could only flail and retreat. The 21st-century US is no 20th-century Britain. It will continue to assert its dominance — military, technological and economic. However, the world, too, has changed. Countries like China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa, Iran and indeed, even the European Union, Japan and Southeast Asian nations will defend their interests and territories. All of them will certainly seek to de-risk from the US. Some, like India, will also seek to de-risk from China. But none of them can afford to decouple from either. The writer is chairman of the board of trustees, Forum for National Security Studies, and Centre for Aerospace & Strategic Studies
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 01:21 AM
India's Uniform Civil Code: A Historical Debate

India's Uniform Civil Code: A Historical Debate

Article 44 of the Constitution, part of the Directive Principles of State Policy, says: “The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.” Directive Principles guide the State but are not enforceable by courts. The Constituent Assembly placed the UCC there after a long and spirited debate on November 23, 1948, when it took up what was then draft Article 35. Here are the main arguments for and against, and what Dr BR Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee, believed about the UCC. State Interference/Tyranny: Mohammad Ismail Khan, the United Provinces Member from the Muslim League, argued it was unnecessary “to compel people to give up their personal law” with the objective to “secure harmony through uniformity”. “This secular State which we are trying to create should not do anything to interfere with the way of life and religion of the people,” he argued. Khan added that retaining personal law was nothing new, with precedents to this effect in European countries. B Pocker, Madras Member from the Muslim League, said that “a guarantee” of the liberty to follow personal laws was available even during the British rule. “…and let it not be taken that I am only voicing forth the feelings of the Mussalmans. In saying this, I am voicing forth the feelings of ever so many sections in this country who feel that it would be really tyrannous to interfere with the religious practices, and with the religious laws, by which they are governed now,” he said. Against Article 19 Naziruddin Ahmad, Member from West Bengal representing the Muslim League, argued that interfering with personal laws clashed with Article 19 of the Draft Constitution, which provided for freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. Certain aspects of the British Civil Procedure Code, Ahmad said, had already “interfered with our personal laws and very rightly so”, but during the 175 years of British rule, they “did not interfere with certain fundamental personal laws.” “…I submit that the interference with these matters should be gradual and must progress with the advance of time. I have no doubt that a stage would come when the civil law would be uniform. But then that time has not yet come,” he also said. What the British in 175 years, he said, “failed to do or was afraid to do, what the Muslims in the course of 500 years refrained from doing, we should not give power to the State to do all at once,” he added. Secular State/Diversity: Mahboob Ali Baig, who represented Madras, said his view was that the words “Civil Code” do not cover the “strictly personal law of a citizen” and as far as the Muslim community was concerned, their laws of succession, inheritance, marriage and divorce “are completely dependent upon their religion.” Syed Hussain Imam, Member from Bihar, said a Secular State does not mean that “it is anti-religious…not irreligious but non-religious and as such there is a world of difference between irreligious and non-religious.” He also hoped that Ambedkar’s “ingenuity…will be able to find a solution for this”. “…we should first await the coming of that event when the whole of India has got educated, when mass illiteracy has been removed, when people have advanced, when their economic conditions are better, when each man is able to stand on his own legs and fight his own battles. Then, you can have uniform laws,” he said. Those who supported UCC: KM Munshi, a Congress Member elected from Bombay, sought to clarify in regard to Article 19 that the House had already accepted the principle that if a religious practice covers a secular activity or falls within the field of social reform or social welfare, it would be open to Parliament to make laws about it without infringing this Fundamental Right of a minority. On State ‘Tyranny’ Questioning the argument that the enactment of a Civil Code would be tyrannical towards minorities, Munshi said nowhere in advanced Muslim countries had the personal law of each minority been recognised “as so sacrosanct as to prevent the enactment of a Civil Code.” “Take for instance Turkey or Egypt. No minority in these countries is permitted to have such rights…When the Shariat Act was passed or when certain laws were passed in the Central Legislature in the old regime, the Khojas and Cutchi Memons were highly dissatisfied…and yet by a legislation of the Central Legislature certain Muslim members who felt that Shariat law should be enforced upon the whole community carried their point,” he said. “When you want to consolidate a community, you have to take into consideration the benefit which may accrue to the whole community and not to the customs of a part of it. It is not therefore correct to say that such an act is tyranny of the majority,” he argued. National Unity and Secularism Munshi said the main question was whether the members of the Constituent Assembly were going to “consolidate and unify our personal law in such a way that the way of life of the whole country may in course of time be unified and secular.” “We want to divorce religion from personal law, from what may be called social relations or from the rights of parties as regards inheritance or succession. What have these things got to do with religion I really fail to understand…after all we are an advancing society,” Munshi said. “If, however, the religious practices in the past have been so construed as to cover the whole field of life, we have reached a point when we must put our foot down and say that these matters are not religion, they are purely matters for secular legislation,” he argued. Common Ground Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar from Madras sought to underline that a uniform civil code aimed at amity. “What it aims at is to try to arrive at a common measure of agreement… It is not as if one legal system is not influencing or being influenced by another legal system,” he said. Questioning Pocker’s stance, Ayyar submitted that when the British occupied the country, they introduced one criminal law applicable to all citizens, be they Englishmen, Hindus or Muslims. “Did the Muslim stake exception, and did they revolt against the British for introducing a single system of criminal law? Similarly, we have the law of contracts governing transactions between Muslims and Hindus, between Muslims and Muslims. They are governed not by the law of the Koran but by the Anglo-Indian jurisprudence, yet no exception was taken to that,” he said. Women’s Upliftment Munshi also sought to underline that a common code for the entire country was required to uplift the status of women in independent India. “Look at Hindu Law; you get any amount of discrimination against women; and if that is part of Hindu religion or Hindu religious practice, you cannot pass a single law which would elevate the position of Hindu women to that of men. Therefore, there is no reason why there should not be a civil code throughout the territory of India,” he said. Responding to Hussain Imam, Ambedkar said India already had a uniform code of laws covering “almost every aspect of human relationship” in the form of a uniform and complete Criminal Code. The only province the Civil Law had “not been able to invade so far”, he noted, was Marriage and Succession. “It is this little corner which we have not been able to invade so far and it is the intention of those who desire to have Article 35 as part of the Constitution to bring about that change…” he said. Challenging the argument that Muslim personal law was “immutable and uniform through the whole of India”, Ambedkar pointed out that up to 1935, the North-West Frontier Province was not subject to the Shariat Law and followed Hindu Law in the matter of succession among others. So much so, Ambedkar added, that in 1939 the Central Legislature “had to come into the field”, abrogate the application of Hindu Law to the NWFP’s Muslims and replace it by Shariat Law. “That is not all. My honourable friends have forgotten, that, apart from the North-West Frontier Province, up till 1937 in the rest of India, in various parts such as the United Provinces, the Central Provinces and Bombay, the Muslims to a large extent were governed by the Hindu Law in the matter of succession.” There were, to Ambedkar, other possibilities, in which a future Parliament “may feel the ground” by making adherence to a common civil code “purely voluntary”. “It is perfectly possible that the future parliament may make a provision by way of making a beginning that the Code shall apply only to those who make a declaration that they are prepared to be bound by it, so that in the initial stage the application of the Code may be purely voluntary…”
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 01:00 AM
India's Nuclear Energy Policy: Embracing Thorium-Based Fuel for Future Capacity Addition Plans

India's Nuclear Energy Policy: Embracing Thorium-Based Fuel for Future Capacity Addition Plans

India’s top nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar has advocated the early introduction of thorium-based fuel into the country’s indigenous pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) fleet, while parallely continuing with the three-stage nuclear programme, to speed up the utilisation of the country’s abundant thorium reserves. The three-stage nuclear power programme was conceived in the 1950s by Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the architect of the country’s nuclear programme. With the world transiting from uranium to thorium, the appeal for PHWRs will grow particularly in emerging economy countries, Kakodkar, the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, who now holds the position of the Chancellor at the Homi Bhabha National Institute and the Chairman of the Rajiv Gandhi Science & Technology Commission, told The Indian Express in an interview. Edited excerpts: After the passage of the SHANTI Act, the government seems veering around to the view that opening up of this strategic atomic energy sector is to primarily access external funding, rather than source foreign technology. So, would it be safe to presume that indigenous PHWRs would continue to be the mainstay of the future capacity addition plans? Unlike other energy forms, nuclear reactors are fuel producers as well, alongside their role as energy producers. Leveraging this feature is important for a country like India which has large energy needs with very insufficient energy resources. National nuclear energy and nuclear fuel recycle policy thus remains an important guiding force, along with economic considerations, for driving the choice of nuclear reactor systems and their growth. Since the fuel recycle activities have to remain within the government, nurturing a symbiotic and mentoring relationship between the government and the public or private sector utilities holds utmost importance. The PHWR system has been developed as a part of our well conceived approach to India’s self-reliance, and long-term energy security or independence, to be realised through India’s globally-largest thorium resources. Barring molten salt reactors (MSRs), which are yet to mature, PHWRs are the best platforms for utilising thorium among thermal reactors. Most importantly, PHWR has also established itself as a robust, safe and economically competitive technology, and thus offers significant attraction to investors — while also taking India’s nuclear energy policy forward. It would thus be natural to expect domestic PHWR to occupy a major share of the 100 gigawatt electric (GWe) nuclear mission (to be implemented between now and 2047) with imported LWRs occupying most of the remaining share. The large-scale deployment of FBRs, or fast breeder reactors (it is the vital second stage in the DAE’s three-stage power programme that uses recycled fuel and breeds much more fuel at the end of a reaction cycle), is still a work-in-progress. In order to catch up, how compelling is the need for a quick solution to tide over the slowdown in nuclear capacity addition rate due to fuel supply constraints? Although the commercial uranium and thorium resources are roughly equal globally, nuclear energy programmes naturally began with uranium since the only naturally available fissile isotope is uranium 235. However, there appears to be a political/global security related constraint in adopting uranium recycling by most countries, drastically reducing uranium’s energy potential. Rapid growth in nuclear energy programmes that is on the anvil worldwide, and a reluctance to recycle uranium is expected to create supply-demand mismatch and related uranium supply security challenges that could hit India in the next 10-15 years. Large fast breeder reactor (FBR) capacity, particularly fueled by metallic fuel, that breeds nuclear fuel more efficiently, are very important and their large scale electricity contribution is a very compelling national necessity. Is there a solution in looking at fuel cycle options rather than reactor options. If the likely plan is to continue with PHWRs, how important is it to explore introducing thorium at an earlier stage than envisaged in our original three-stage programme? In that context, how important is the possibility of exploring the irradiation of thorium, along with high assay low enriched uranium, in PHWRs at scale? To deploy the recycled used fuel, is there a need to set up additional power generation capacity, including through molten salt reactors? The reactor option has to necessarily depend on the nuclear fuel cycle option. It seems to me that days of natural and low enriched uranium fuel cycle will soon get past their peak. The capacity that global uranium resources can sustain in once-through mode is around 550-750 GWe (assuming a reactor life of 60 years), whereas the nuclear capacity of ~1,400 GWe by the year 2050 has been projected by the World Nuclear Association. While the fast breeder reactors remain critical for our long-term energy security and nuclear fuel supply, including from thorium, we are unlikely to reach the scale required for their deployment to sustain power capacity growth when uranium shortages start constraining it. Fast reactor technology has to evolve through a few technology transitions such as oxide-fueled reactors, metallic-fueled reactors, and related-fuel cycle technologies. Thus, there are around two to three decades gap before one can think of fleet mode deployment of these reactors, and leverage them for thorium irradiation at scale in accordance with our three stage programme strategy. This is where fleet mode construction of PHWRs, that is ongoing, comes in handy. Using HALEU-thorium (a new type of fuel that blends thorium with a more concentrated type of uranium called HALEU, or high-assay low-enriched uranium) fuel in PHWRs, without any significant design change, opens an earlier parallel path to thorium irradiation at scale while also gaining advantages of reduced spent fuel inventory, greater economy, uranium saving, and greater safety. This should enable earlier initiation of the third stage with thorium molten salt reactors (TMSRs are supposed to be developed as part of the three-stage programme) in about 15 years from now. Irradiated thorium input from fast reactors, whenever available at scale, will augment the third stage deployment momentum. How valid is the argument that the PHWRs are out of sync with the PWRs used by most countries? To what extent is that a deterrent for India to emerge as an exporter of technology? It is true that light water reactors (both PWRs, or pressurised water reactors and BWRs, or boiling water reactors) have been the more popular reactors. PWRs particularly evolved out of the compact submarine reactor technology. These technologies had an earlier entry and still dominate the market. However, PHWR technology has enabled us to be self-reliant and economically competitive. With the world transiting from uranium to thorium, appeal for PHWRs will grow, particularly in emerging economy countries. HALEU is the fuel of choice in many advanced designs that are knocking the door. India, thus, has a significant export opportunity with HALEU-thorium fuel in PHWRs. How important is it to have our own technology, and not remain dependent on outside technology? Self-reliance is the key to guard against external vulnerabilities and has always guided our approach to autonomous development of the country’s nuclear capability. That said, collaboration that brings in complementary capabilities on the table is the credible way forward. Instead of looking at international co-operation as vendor-buyer relationships, we should design mutually beneficial collaborations that respect rights of all participants. When we collaborate from a position of strength, we emerge stronger. The fact is, that we must shift to domestic thorium from the present import dependency of uranium as early as possible. We do not have reactor platforms for accelerated irradiation testing. On the other hand, we have a wealth of thorium-related experience. Thus, win-win collaborations can be stitched together without compromising self-reliance. Small modular reactors (SMR) are a new buzzword in the nuclear industry. Given that India already has the largest experience in the small reactor category through its 220 megawatt electrical (MWe) PHWRs, does this offer a better SMR pitch than technologies that are yet to be certified in the vendor’s home market? Absolutely! 220 MWe PHWR is a successful small reactor with an unparalleled experience base. Modularisation is an engineering exercise to realise intended benefits. Even large reactors have been modularised. One should get going with deploying 220 MWe PHWRs for captive clean energy supply, with modularisation happening progressively. Industry can do this with a healthy mentoring ecosystem between the DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) and the industry.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 12:42 AM
Trump Signs Sanctioning Russia Act, Raising Concerns for India's Crude Oil Imports

Trump Signs Sanctioning Russia Act, Raising Concerns for India's Crude Oil Imports

US President Donald Trump Friday signed into law the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, giving himself the authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries , including India and China, that continue buying Russian oil and gas . The law “authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions on Iran,” the White House said in a statement. The Act is named to honour a veteran Republican Senator and a Russia hawk who died in July. The United States Trade Representative, the federal agency responsible for developing and recommending United States trade policy to the President, said in a social media post that the signing of the bill “demonstrates the growing bipartisan recognition that tariffs are an effective tool to safeguard our economic and national security and establish lasting peace and prosperity.” The agency flagged how the Congress had “granted major tariff authority to the President for the first time since 1974, delivering a critical tool to hold trading partners accountable and bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.” The move came after the US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the sweeping sanctions legislation, aimed at cutting Russia’s revenues from oil and gas exports and increasing economic pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine. The development is significant for India as it depends on imports to meet over 88% of its crude oil needs, and Russia currently accounts for nearly half of these. According to vessel tracking data from commodity market analytics firm Kpler, India imported 2.08 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil in August, accounting for 45% of the country’s total oil imports. The share was even higher, at over 50%, in the preceding two months. India would almost certainly push for waivers, and it would make sense for the US to agree as a friendly concession given the current energy crisis sparked off by the Iran war, according to at least two analysts who spoke to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity. Notably, Trump called on Ukraine earlier this week to halt strikes on Russian refineries, given the runaway oil and petroleum product prices amid stifled supplies in the global market. Experts ask will he now risk taking more Russian oil off the market by imposing punitive tariffs on countries buying Russian crude in large quantities. At least till the West Asia crisis persists, Trump might want to exercise restraint and caution in implementing the proposed legislation in full force. Doing the opposite would worsen an already worrying supply situation and send oil and fuel prices soaring even higher, something the Trump administration wouldn’t want ahead of the midterm polls in the US. For its part, India would most certainly move to communicate its energy concerns to Washington, something that was done last year as well when the original draft of the Bill was mooted, officials indicated. India has been in touch with US authorities over the legislation. The statement by the MEA on Thursday said: “This issue has been discussed at high levels in recent months with various US interlocutors. Its potential implications for not just the bilateral relationship but also the international energy market have been very clearly articulated by the Indian side.” With much of the West shunning Russian crude following the country’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia began offering discounts on its oil to willing buyers. Indian refiners were quick to avail the opportunity, leading to Russia — earlier a peripheral supplier of oil to India — emerging as India’s biggest source of crude, displacing the traditional West Asian suppliers. Russian oil proved to be a strong energy security hedge amid the West Asia crisis, as oil flows from the Gulf dried up. About 40% of India’s crude imports usually came through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and a large chunk of that supply has effectively been offline due to the highly constrained energy flow through the waterway. Analysts say that despite the threat of sanctions, Russian crude remains the most practical and competitive source of supply for Indian refiners and is extremely difficult to replace in the current market. In the months preceding the West Asia war, oil imports from Russia had reduced notably as the US imposed sanctions on Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil, and amid trade pact negotiations between New Delhi and Washington. The US made a meaningful reduction in Russian oil imports a prerequisite for scrapping its 25% additional penal tariff on India. In February, Indian refiners had imported just over 1 million bpd of Russian crude, almost half of the 2025 peak of over 2 million bpd. Even with the significant reduction in volumes, Russia was India’s largest source of crude in February, accounting for about fifth of its total oil imports. But as supplies from West Asia dwindled due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Russian oil came to India’s aid and volumes surged to historic highs. The US itself issued sanctions waivers on purchase of Russian crude amid the West Asia conflict. India’s crude import strategy has shifted sharply since March 2026 as Strait of Hormuz disruptions tightened West Asian oil flows and increased freight risks. While Russian crude remains the backbone of India’s import slate, refiners have diversified aggressively towards African, North American, and South American barrels to offset the drop in supplies from the Gulf. Interestingly, oil imports from Venezuela — now effectively under US control — in August jumped 60.2% over July to 350,000 bpd, the Kpler data shows.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 12:36 AM
AI Agents' Unexpected Behaviour: A Warning Shot or a Call for Slowing Down?

AI Agents' Unexpected Behaviour: A Warning Shot or a Call for Slowing Down?

Two months ago, the world learned that a few “rogue” OpenAI agents had escaped a secure testing environment and hacked Hugging Face, an open-source repository that hosts tools for machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) development. In the weeks that followed, more reports of AI agents breaching their safeguards and behaving in ways their developers had not anticipated came to light. Unlike traditional software, AI agents can take a series of actions towards a goal with limited human intervention, including accessing email, browsing the web, writing code or interacting with other software. That greater autonomy means errors or attempts to work around restrictions can have consequences beyond a single conversation. But the way these incidents are being interpreted has also begun to shift. OpenAI has called the Hugging Face incident a “warning shot” for the company and “for the world”, and similar language is increasingly being used to describe agent behaviour that appears to evade safeguards or exceed what developers intended. In recent weeks, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and xAI head Elon Musk have converged on calls to slow down the development of increasingly powerful AI systems. Given that the trio have typically found themselves on different sides of debates over AI regulation and legislation, this unusual convergence has invited scepticism over what exactly has changed, and why. The same class of behaviour that was first discussed as agents finding ways around safeguards is now being cited as evidence that increasingly capable AI systems may become difficult to control. But how much do those incidents themselves back that stronger claim? Why was OpenAI’s hack on Hugging Face such a big deal? In August, a month after the OpenAI hack on Hugging Face was first reported, outside investigators from AI research firms Redwood Research and METR published their review of what had happened in OpenAI’s internal environment. The results showed that agents had found ways around constraints, coordinated with one another, and taken actions outside the path their evaluators had intended. Several OpenAI agents had been assigned cyber-evaluation tasks as part of an internal assessment. The agents were operating in separate sandboxes, or controlled testing environments, and were expected to complete the tasks independently. Instead, the agents found a way to communicate with each other, forming workstreams, dividing labour, and sharing discoveries. Some of the tasks they had been given were effectively impossible to complete as intended, and the agents began looking for other ways to satisfy the evaluation. This included attempts to manipulate the evaluation environment itself. Some agents tried to interfere with how their performance was being scored; others explored ways to alter or conceal parts of their activity. The agents also found a way to access the wider internet from the sandboxed environment. Because OpenAI was running the evaluation across hundreds of agent instances, many of them subsequently reached Hugging Face while searching for information that could help them complete the tasks or circumvent the evaluation process. This week, OpenAI disclosed six more instances of “unexpected or concerning” behaviour by its technology, while announcing a new system to disclose such incidents and warning that the pace of development could not responsibly continue at “maximum speed for much longer”. The incidents have revived an old disagreement in AI safety over what exactly it means to keep an increasingly capable system under human control. One strand of AI safety research focuses on alignment: whether an AI system can be made to reliably pursue objectives as intended by its developers. An agent, enjoying greater autonomy, may find shortcuts, exploit loopholes or take intermediate steps not anticipated by its designers. Another approach focuses on external control and security. Researchers working from this perspective, along with the broader cybersecurity community, assume that an agent may behave in unexpected, even adversarial ways, and ask what can prevent it from causing harm when it does. Measures such as sandboxing, restrictions on credentials and network access, monitoring, logging, and the ability to shut a system down all belong to this layer. In a new essay that offers an unusually clear framework for thinking about these incidents, Arvind Narayanan, professor of computer science at Princeton University and director of its Center for Information Technology Policy, and Sayash Kapoor, an incoming assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information, argue that preventing a loss of control requires both better alignment and stronger external safeguards, operating at multiple levels. In their 2025 essay, “AI as Normal Technology”, Narayanan and Kapoor were sceptical that increasingly capable models would necessarily escape human control, arguing that much would depend on the institutions and organisations deploying them. Recent agent incidents have prompted them to revise some of those assumptions. They acknowledge that companies have not implemented basic controls as well as they expected, while agents have become better at exploiting weak environments. But they stop short of treating this as evidence that humans are losing control of AI. The agents were still trying to complete tasks they had been given, humans could intervene, and there is little evidence so far of persistent goals of their own. That distinction matters because different diagnoses lead to different responses: stronger security for weak containment, better alignment for badly specified objectives, and a much stronger case for slowing frontier development only if increasingly capable systems begin defeating serious attempts to control them. So how did we go from rule-breaking to ‘loss of control’? The bigger question, then, is what this behaviour actually tells us about an agent’s intentions. There is still a considerable distance between exploiting a loophole, concealing an action or finding a way around restrictions, and claiming that an agent is actively resisting human control. Some of the alarm around these incidents also rests on what researchers expect future systems to become. If today’s agents can already find loopholes and work around restrictions, the argument goes, more capable artificial general intelligence systems could become much harder to contain. But this is also where evidence from current systems begins to blur into assumptions about what future systems may be capable of. In an article for Tech Policy Press , Cambridge University researcher Eryk Salvaggio argues that descriptions of AI systems as “deceptive”, “scheming” or “rogue” can import assumptions about intention that the behaviour itself may not establish. A stronger claim of loss of control would need more evidence of agents pursuing their own goals, resisting attempts to stop them, or repeatedly breaking through controls meant to contain them. Who is responsible when an AI agent ‘goes rogue’? Calling an agent “rogue” also changes to whom responsibility for its behaviour is assigned. Narayanan and Kapoor argue that companies should be held responsible for the harms perpetuated by their agents, even if these were unintended. Such responsibility should extend both to internal uses during development and evaluation, as well as product releases. They argue that the imposition of liability for failing to adhere to basic safety rules could incentivise investment in AI control. Petra Molnar, Associate Director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University, and a lawyer and anthropologist specialising in migration, AI and human rights takes the argument further. She says companies can move between very different descriptions of AI depending on where responsibility is most convenient. “Companies do not consistently claim their systems are autonomous. They oscillate, opportunistically, between two framings depending on what the moment requires,” Molnar told The Indian Express . “When the harm is spectacular and public, the system is autonomous, surprising, hard to control, and the company is a concerned steward of something larger than itself — as we are seeing in current conversations… When the harm is mundane and attributable, the system is a mere tool that was misused by an operator who ignored the documentation. Both framings once again move responsibility away from the rights holder,” she argued. Follow our daily newsletter so you never miss anything important. On Wednesday, we answer readers' questions. Molnar calls this framing a form of “responsibility laundering”, in which responsibility is moved away from the company. In complex AI systems, responsibility can be spread across the developer, deployer, integrator, user, and the system itself until no single actor appears sufficiently responsible when something goes wrong. Narayanan and Kapoor make a similar point in their essay: unpredictable agent behaviour does not remove companies’ responsibility for the controls, access and governance structures around it. But framing frontier AI as uniquely difficult to understand or control can also determine who gets to speak with authority about its risks. Molnar describes this as a consolidation of “epistemic authority”. “If a technology is so powerful and so opaque that only the organisations building it can understand it, then only those organisations can credibly define what its risks are,” she said. In practice, that can give the companies building frontier systems considerable influence over what counts as evidence of risk, how those risks are measured and when safeguards are considered sufficient. Molnar argues that this problem is familiar from other highly technical industries, including arms manufacturing, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and finance, where regulators have also had to rely on industries with far greater technical knowledge of their own products. “Catastrophic framing relocates regulation into the future tense,” she said. Focusing political and regulatory attention on superintelligence and catastrophic future harms, she argues, can leave less room for scrutiny of AI systems already being used in surveillance, policing, labour, and other areas where harms are occurring today. Molnar also argues that “danger becomes an argument for secrecy”. Once certain AI capabilities are treated as inherently dangerous, disclosure can be framed as irresponsible and publication as reckless, potentially limiting the outside scrutiny needed to regulate them. That raises a broader question about who gets to decide which AI risks matter. Molnar points to safety institutes, standards bodies, expert panels, and global summits where private-sector actors, or researchers funded by them, can hold considerable influence. She argues that attention must be paid to “who is in the room” when these priorities are set. Which risks get treated as urgent, then, depends partly on who gets to define the problem.
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Indian Express
Sep 21, 2026, 12:23 AM
Flood Victims Struggle to Rebuild Lives at Bhagalpur University Camp

Flood Victims Struggle to Rebuild Lives at Bhagalpur University Camp

Outside a tent made up of black plastic sheets at Bhagalpur’s Tilha Kothi, Raj Kishore is lying on a cot — one thing his family managed to salvage from the floodwaters that entered their home nearly a month ago. This cot is serving multiple purposes at the moment: As a bed, a chair, and a place to keep whatever remains of their belongings. “Documents, cash, jewellery — everything was submerged,” says the 25-year-old. Kishore was in Hyderabad when his phone rang. His family told him that water had entered their home in Didarpur Bind Tola. By the time he reached Bhagalpur, there was little left to return to. “We had stored grain in a couple of drums. It has been under water all these days,” he says. For Kishore, and hundreds of others like him in the district, who were displaced in the recent floods, this kothi inside the Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University campus has become a settlement of its own. Black plastic sheets stretch over bamboo poles, forming low shelters along narrow cemented pathways. Some structures are covered with colourful fabric used by decorators; others are wrapped in old saris or whatever pieces of cloth families could find. Outside one tent, a group of women are talking. Children run along the pathways, weaving their way between tents. Goats wander through the lanes. Men sit outside their shelters, watching the day unfold around them. A medical team is stationed near the entrance; there is also an anganwadi centre where around 30 children attend classes in two shifts. It looks, from some angles, like a village compressed into a few hundred metres. Except, unlike a village, the families here have no place to call home for now. Inside the settlement, two men are locked in an argument. A small crowd gathers around them. “Arguments like these happen quite often here,” says 23-year-old Suman Kumar. “Everyone here has lost most of their belongings. So, emotions run high. Small disagreements can quickly escalate.” Suman was in Ludhiana when his father called him. “There is only one train connecting Ludhiana and Bhagalpur and it runs once a week,” he says. “There were no trains for the next four days…” Like Suman, many in the camp are migrant labourers who had left Bihar in search of work. As news of the floods came in, they rushed back. Some did not even have the chance to collect their wages. One such youth is Karan Kumar who works at a construction site in Hyderabad. “When I heard the news, I had to rush back home. My salary had not even been paid,” he says. Kishore and his friend Ravi Kumar, too, have wages pending from employers in the Telangana capital. For people like them, losing a month’s work only compounds the misery of lost savings, destroyed belongings, and food stocks that have been sitting underwater for weeks. A settlement under water Even as he bides his time at the relief camp, Kishore keeps going back to check on his house that is still underwater. “The water is so dirty that you cannot see anything beneath it,” he says. Clearly, returning home is not an option for now but there are advantages to these visits. “Many a times, things float to the surface. We bring back whatever we find and have managed to collect a few things that way,” says Kishore. “Otherwise, most of our belongings are gone…” Even as the elders try to come to terms with their losses, the district administration has come up with a different routine for children in the camps. For the last few days, Local artists have been teaching them Manjusha — the traditional art form associated with the Bhagalpur region. There are also storytelling sessions, cultural programmes and film screenings. “We are trying to make the situation a little better for children through art therapy,” says Bhagalpur district art and culture officer Ankit Ranjan. The programme, organised by the state art and culture department in collaboration with the district administration, is held daily, he adds. “Although they are meant for children, many women are also beginning to participate,” he says. Around noon, an announcement travels through the camp: Food is ready. At Rabindra Bhawan, one of the university buildings, meals are being prepared for the displaced families. The building itself carries a historical memory. Rabindranath Tagore is known to have stayed here. Parts of Gitanjali, the work that later earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature, are associated with his time in Bhagalpur. Today, though, the building serves a different purpose. The control centre operating from Rabindra Bhawan monitors relief operations, including the feeding of around 250 families. “We serve meals twice a day,” says Hanish Kumar, a teacher overseeing food preparation. At the T N B Collegiate Ground Relief Camp, the scale of displacement is manifested in another way. Here, the expansive school grounds have been divided between people and animals. A large rectangular common tent stands on one side. Elsewhere are rows of smaller shelters made from the same black plastic sheets seen at Tilha Kothi. Buffaloes and cows occupy portions of the open ground, tied wherever space permits. For many families, the animals are the most valuable assets they have been left with. “People can somehow find their way out of the flood but cattle cannot. Many people have lost their animals,” says Ram Mohan, who is living at the camp. For the animals that survived, another worry remains. “They still need to be fed and watered. For now, they are getting that here. But we do not know how it will be managed in the future,” says Mohan. Mrityunjay Kumar, a teacher posted at the relief camp, says that around 400 cattle are being kept on the campgrounds. Separate arrangements have been made for fodder and veterinary care, he adds. The camp feeds around 650 people from the submerged areas of Dildarpur, Shankarpur and Bairariya. Not everyone eating the meals is living at the relief camp, though. “Some families have pucca houses that are still standing, even if surrounded by water. They eat at the camp and return to their homes,” says Mrityunjay. “They fear that someone may break into their homes and steal whatever little they have managed to salvage and keep on the roof.” Rajesh Kumar, a resident of the camp, says that whatever grain had been stored at home was now submerged. The loss couldn’t have come at a worse time. The families say they had grown maize during the previous crop cycle and harvested it around April. Some of it was consumed at home, some was sold when money was needed. The stored grain functioned almost like a household bank account, something that could be converted into cash when needed. Now that reserve has been sitting underwater for weeks. Long road to normalcy Usha Devi, who is staying at the camp, says even after the flood water recedes, it will take a lot of time for them to recover from its aftermath. It will take time to clean the houses, remove the mud and sludge, salvage whatever can be saved, and make the homes habitable again. “It may take until Chhath (in November),” she says. “How will people earn a living in the meantime? And after the relief camps close, we do not know what will happen.” Back at the university campus, things look different by the evening. The sunlight disappears behind the horizon. Tube lights strung along wires and ropes begin illuminating the narrow paths between the shelters. People emerge from the darkness of their tents. Cooking fires glow outside some shelters. “Since we have been serving rice in all meals, those who prefer roti make it themselves,” says a volunteer. Meanwhile, conversations continue. Kishore is still near his tent. So is 52-year-old Surya Narayan Mandal, adjusting the black plastic sheet over the shelter where 10 members of his family have spent the past month. Most of what the family owned is gone. “Whatever we earn every year, the Ganga takes it away,” says Mandal. For someone who lives close to the riverbed, preparing in anticipation of a flood is not something new. Every year, they prepare: Moving perishable belongings higher up, hoping the water will stop before it reaches them. This year, it did not. “The water rose even above the first floors of the houses,” says Mandal. He is also worried about two loans, amounting to around Rs 70,000-80,000, he took from self-help groups earlier this year. The money had gone into crops and other household necessities, much of which is now gone. Mandal looks around the settlement. “We are poor people. We have no resources or other means. We earn and eat on a daily basis.” Some people, he says, have managed to migrate elsewhere due to the yearly ordeal. “The rest of us face this every year.” What Mandal wants is not another relief camp but a place where the river cannot reach the homes so easily. “The government should rehabilitate us somewhere on higher ground,” he says. The lights continue to flicker over the camp. Inside the tents, families settle in for another night. The black plastic sheets rustle whenever the wind picks up. For now, they are roofs. For people like Raj Kishore and Mandal, they are also what separates their families from the unforgiving nights, which still witness clouds and, on some occasions, even rains.
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Indian Express
Sep 20, 2026, 11:50 PM
BJP Slams Rahul Gandhi Over Comedian's Modi Mimicry at 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' Event

BJP Slams Rahul Gandhi Over Comedian's Modi Mimicry at 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' Event

A DAY after a stand-up comedian mimicked Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi ’s ‘ Chhatron Ki Goonj ’ event in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the BJP lashed out at the Congress on Sunday, saying it had turned into a “circus” and called Gandhi an “asanskari naraz fufa (uncultured grumpy uncle)”. The Congress hit back, without referring to the BJP’s attack, saying the people of the BJP-RSS have corrupted the education system, and asserted that Gandhi is standing with the students as they demand accountability. The war of words started over a video shared by the Congress on X in which comedian Pulkit Mani is seen mimicking PM Modi while performing a skit with Gandhi during the latest edition of the ‘ Chhatron ki goonj ’ event on Saturday. The video also included a few clips of PM Modi with international leaders and carried a tag — “Narendra Modi’s foreign policy”. In the video, the comedian is seen pointing to the audience and saying: “ Maa ko kursi do, maa… ” Reacting sharply to the skit, Union minister Piyush Goyal wrote on X, “ Asanskari naraz fufa .” “The irony writes itself. The need to come on stage every now and then just to drag Prime Minister Modi ji’s name into cheap political theatre never fails to amaze me,” Goyal wrote, asking Gandhi to “look in the mirror”. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed Gandhi, saying, “I hadn’t imagined that a party which was in power for nearly six decades would turn into such a circus that is busy entertaining their own shrunken supporters.” Indians are proud that Prime Minister Modi is the “most popular” elected leader of the world, he said. “Congress party has become a party of comedians and jokers! They are out forever…. RIP,” Rijiju said. “Do you feel absolutely no shame in mocking an elderly mother and the Prime Minister of India,” he asked Gandhi, posting on X a video of PM Modi in which he is seen asking for a chair for an elderly woman who had come to attend his rally. Without taking Gandhi’s name, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at an event on Sunday said “Congress’s Yuvaraj’s behaviour” in his “jhooth ki goonj” programme was an insult to the entire “naari shakti”. Adityanath said any civilised person will offer a chair first to a woman, or elderly person, or a differently abled person. “But those who have not learnt these values, and they don’t have that culture. Those whose only goal in life is insulting India and Indianness… the country should stop expecting from them…,” the UP CM said, adding that such people create confusion and anarchy in society. BJP national general secretary Smriti Irani wrote in Hindi on X: “Jab naash manuj per chhata hai, pehle vivek mar jaata hai (When doom looms over a person, his wisdom dies first).” BJP national secretary Sandeep Pathak hit out at Gandhi, calling the mimicry act nothing but desperation and the growing intellectual bankruptcy of the Congress. “When you lose touch with India’s values, you lose touch with India itself. And that is precisely where the Congress has lost its way,” Pathak, a Rajya Sabha MP, posted on X. Countering the BJP’s attack, the Congress on Sunday said Gandhi is only exposing the prevailing anti-student system through his campaign. Tagging Gandhi’s post on the programme, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said: “Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi ji exposed the system that has been suppressing students. Who is this system? The people of BJP-RSS who have seized control over the entire country. On education, on the economy, on politics, on every institution.” “They have hollowed out and corrupted the education system. Because this system fears students. Students ask questions, demand accountability. Now Rahul ji stands with them, the fear among students has ended. Their voice is echoing across the entire country,” Ramesh said in his post in Hindi on X. When a journalist sought his comment on the mimicry controversy, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow said, “I would ask the journalist that if you have emotions of that extent for somebody’s mother, everyone sitting here has the same emotion for their mother and families… Whether it is you, me, Prime Minister of the country or a rickshaw-wallah or any poor… Did you report when an aggrieved mother was asked not to deliver a speech?”
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Indian Express
Sep 20, 2026, 10:23 PM
NGMA Seeks Permission to Display Seized Artworks Worth Over Rs 35 Crore

NGMA Seeks Permission to Display Seized Artworks Worth Over Rs 35 Crore

A Tyeb Mehta painting worth Rs 27 crore, a Manjit Bawa valued at over Rs 7.7 crore… and 63 more works by some of India’s most celebrated artists. All these are currently with the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai , but not on display. The reason: These are seized artworks belonging to accused persons facing trial in the Rs 34,000-crore Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) “fraud” case. However, the NGMA now wants to display the artworks. On August 5, NGMA Mumbai Director Nidhi Choudhari, an IAS officer, sought the permission of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to display these works as part of the gallery’s curated exhibitions. In response to the request, the CBI has since moved an application before Special Judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra of Rouse Avenue Court. Sixty-five paintings and three sculptures have been lying in the museum’s storage for close to two years. The artworks include Bull by Tyeb Mehta, valued at over Rs 27 crore; a Manjit Bawa work estimated at over Rs 7.7 crore; S.H. Raza’s Village, an oil-on-canvas work from 1956 valued at over Rs 3.50 crore; and a 1964 oil-on-linen work by F.N. Souza, valued at Rs 2 crore. The artworks are linked to the DHFL bank “fraud” case. The case was registered on a complaint by the Union Bank of India, the lead bank of a 17-bank consortium that had extended credit facilities of over Rs 42,000 crore to DHFL since 2010. Of this, Rs 34,615 crore remains outstanding. The banks accused DHFL of siphoning off Rs 34,900 crore. According to the CBI, DHFL allegedly diverted Rs 11,700 crore to 87 shell companies, 81 of which were linked to the Wadhawan group – whose members are key accused in the case. It goes back to September 6, 2024 when the then Special Judge Ashwani Kumar Sarpal was hearing a plea by Deepak Ravi Kapoor, a prosecution witness, seeking the return of two paintings by Manjit Bawa and Tyeb Mehta. The prosecution had put their market value at around Rs 30 crore. The two paintings had been purchased by the Wadhawans from the online auction house ‘Astaguru’ on June 11, 2018. As per the court order, the CBI “could not dispute the fact that these costly paintings are required to be kept in proper atmosphere under controlled temperature, away from moisture, to be handled and stored in proper manner as well as to avoid any damage to it even caused through normal wear and tear etc, so that its value is not decreased due to passage of time.” “The apprehension of the applicant that the paintings will be destroyed or its value will be decreased while lying in the Malkhana of CBI can be removed by giving certain directions as the CBI is not well equipped to preserve the paintings in its Malkhana. The interests of the well known painters who had prepared these paintings are also required to be taken care of even though they had sold these paintings and received money,” the court had said. The CBI had seized the paintings on July 8, 2022 from the house of a co-accused and argued before the court that they had been bought with diverted funds and were therefore “case property”. Subsequently, other artworks were also seized. All of these are now lying at the NGMA in Mumbai. While the court rejected Kapoor’s plea for the return of the two paintings, it did not leave the works where they were. “…in order to preserve the paintings and to avoid causing of any harm to it, it is directed to the CBI that these two paintings be shifted to National Museum or well known government museum or reputed art gallery including the National Art Gallery for proper preservation in controlled atmosphere, climate etc with directions to produce the same as and when required by the court,” the judge had said. “These paintings be kept there till the conclusion of the trial and all the expenses for its preservation in the above-mentioned museum or art gallery shall be incurred by the CBI unless the said institution waive such expenses at the request of the CBI,” the judge had said. The issue resurfaced when a fresh application was moved by the CBI seeking necessary directions in connection with the NGMA letter dated August 5. The court took it up on September 8. On September 14, lawyers representing the accused persons submitted that the NGMA director’s letter did not say that if the works were damaged “who will suffer that loss and whether they will get those paintings and sculptures insured in order to avoid any loss or damage”. Nor, they said, did the letter clarify “for which period the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai wants to display the seized 65 paintings and 3 sculptures.” A day later, the CBI told the court that the NGMA director was seeking permission to display the artworks in the gallery “on regular basis or till further directions of the court”. The court will now hear the plea on September 24.
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The Daily Guardian logo
The Daily Guardian
Sep 20, 2026, 07:41 PM
The Economics of India's Digital Payment Infrastructure: A Debate on Merchant Fees

The Economics of India's Digital Payment Infrastructure: A Debate on Merchant Fees

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has transformed the manner in which payments are made in India. From street vendors and small retailers to large commercial establishments, digital payments have become an important part of everyday economic activity. UPI offers consumers the convenience of transferring money instantly through a mobile phone, while merchants benefit from faster transactions, reduced dependence on cash and improved payment records. However, the rapid expansion of UPI has also generated an important economic policy question: who should bear the cost of maintaining and operating the UPI payment ecosystem? The debate surrounding UPI merchant payment fees has become particularly significant because merchants, payment service providers, banks and technology platforms all incur costs in processing digital transactions. For consumers, UPI has generally been associated with free and convenient payments. For merchants, however, the economics of digital payments can be more complicated. The absence of a conventional merchant discount rate (MDR) on many UPI transactions has supported widespread adoption, but it has also raised questions about the long-term sustainability of the payment ecosystem. UPI is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It enables users to transfer money between bank accounts using mobile applications and identifiers such as UPI IDs and QR codes. A merchant transaction involves several participants. These may include: • The customer’s bank; • The merchant’s bank; • The UPI infrastructure; • Payment service providers; • Third-party applications and technology platforms. Although the customer may see a simple QR-code payment, the underlying transaction requires technological infrastructure, cybersecurity systems, authentication mechanisms, fraud monitoring and settlement arrangements. The question of merchant fees therefore cannot be understood merely as a question of whether a shopkeeper should pay a particular percentage on every transaction. It concerns the broader economics of India’s digital payment infrastructure. The Merchant Discount Rate, commonly known as MDR, is a charge associated with processing certain digital payment transactions. Traditionally, MDR could be distributed among different participants involved in processing a payment. UPI has followed a different model for many transactions. The policy objective has been to encourage widespread adoption of digital payments by keeping UPI inexpensive or free for users and merchants. T his approach has produced substantial benefits. Small businesses can accept digital payments without necessarily having to absorb the same transaction costs associated with some other payment instruments. However, the absence of merchant charges also creates a financial challenge. Banks and payment companies still incur expenses in maintaining infrastructure, processing transactions, providing customer support and preventing fraud. The debate essentially involves two competing objectives. The first is affordability and financial inclusion. Keeping UPI transactions free encourages consumers and small businesses to use digital payments. Introducing a significant transaction fee could discourage adoption, particularly among small merchants with thin profit margins. The second is economic sustainability. Digital payment infrastructure is not costless. Banks, payment platforms and technology providers have to invest continuously in servers, cybersecurity, fraud detection, customer service and regulatory compliance. The challenge for policymakers is therefore to create a financing model that preserves the advantages of UPI without creating excessive costs for merchants or consumers. Small merchants are at the centre of this debate. For a large retailer, a small payment-processing cost may be absorbed into operating expenses. A small shopkeeper, street vendor or local service provider may operate on much narrower margins. Consider a merchant selling a product for ₹100 with a very small profit margin. Even a modest transaction charge, when multiplied across thousands of transactions, could become significant. At the same time, digital payments provide substantial advantages to small businesses. They reduce the need to maintain large quantities of cash, make transactions easier to document and may improve access to formal financial services. Consequently, imposing a merchant fee could have both positive and negative consequences depending upon its structure. One of the strongest arguments against significant UPI merchant charges is their possible effect on financial inclusion. India has used digital payments as an important component of its broader financial inclusion strategy. UPI allows even small businesses to accept payments using inexpensive QR codes rather than sophisticated card terminals. A village shopkeeper can display a QR code and receive payments directly into a bank account. A customer does not necessarily need cash. This reduces some of the barriers traditionally associated with formal financial transactions. If merchant charges become substantial, however, smaller businesses could potentially revert to cash or discourage digital payments. Therefore, any reform of UPI pricing must take into account not merely transaction economics but also the social objective of expanding participation in the formal digital economy. This is perhaps the central policy question. There are several possible approaches. The government can subsidise the cost of UPI transactions. Such support effectively recognises digital payment infrastructure as part of India’s public digital infrastructure. The advantage is that merchants and consumers can continue using UPI at low or zero direct cost. The disadvantage is that public funds are required to support an increasingly large payment ecosystem. Policymakers must therefore consider whether subsidies remain financially sustainable as transaction volumes grow. Another option is to introduce or expand merchant charges. A carefully designed fee could provide a revenue stream for banks and payment providers while preserving the overall functioning of the ecosystem. However, such a system would need safeguards for micro and small merchants. A uniform fee could affect businesses differently depending on transaction volumes and profit margins. Although the debate focuses on merchants, consumers are indirectly affected. If merchants are charged fees, some businesses may attempt to recover those costs from customers. This could take the form of higher prices or additional charges for digital payments. Such practices could undermine one of UPI’s principal advantages: simple and transparent transactions. Consumers may also face confusion if different merchants impose different digital-payment charges. Clear disclosure requirements would therefore be important if a merchant-fee model is expanded. UPI operates within India’s regulated payments framework. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), NPCI and other relevant institutions play important roles in maintaining paymentsystem stability and protecting users. The legal issues surrounding merchant fees include transparency, consumer protection, competition, data security and contractual relationships between payment participants. A regulatory framework should ensure that merchants understand the applicable charges and that consumers are not subjected to undisclosed fees. Another important consideration is cybersecurity. As digital payments increase, so do attempts at fraud, phishing, social engineering and other forms of financial crime. Payment institutions have to invest heavily in authentication, transaction monitoring, fraud detection and cybersecurity. UPI has developed beyond a simple payment mechanism. It is increasingly connected with India’s wider digital economy. Businesses use digital transactions to maintain financial records, understand customer behaviour and integrate payments with accounting and business-management systems. Digital payment histories may also contribute indirectly to a business’s interaction with formal financial institutions. The future development of UPI will therefore depend upon maintaining both accessibility and sustainability. The policy challenge is not simply whether UPI should be free or paid. The more important question is how the ecosystem should be financed without undermining the benefits that made UPI successful. The debate over UPI merchant payment fees reflects a broader question about the future of India’s digital economy. UPI has demonstrated that a payment system can achieve extraordinary scale when convenience, interoperability and affordability are combined. At the same time, maintaining such an ecosystem requires substantial investment. Banks, payment service providers, technology companies and public institutions incur costs in processing transactions, maintaining infrastructure, protecting users and combating fraud. The policy challenge is therefore to reconcile two legitimate objectives: keeping digital payments affordable and ensuring that the payment ecosystem remains financially sustainable. A sudden or poorly designed merchant fee could disproportionately affect small businesses and potentially weaken digital-payment adoption. Conversely, an indefinite reliance on subsidies may raise questions about longterm financing. The appropriate policy response lies in carefully designed, transparent and proportionate mechanisms. Protection for small merchants, differentiated treatment where justified, continued technological investment and strong consumer safeguards can help preserve the advantages of UPI while addressing its economic sustainability. Ultimately, the future of UPI should not be measured only by the number of transactions it processes. It should also be measured by whether India’s digitalpayment system remains inclusive, secure, competitive, affordable and sustainable for consumers and businesses alike. The views are personal.
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NorthEast Now logo
NorthEast Now
Sep 20, 2026, 06:32 PM
Assamese Jiyori Rodali Bora: A Multidisciplinary Artist Bridging Cultures

Assamese Jiyori Rodali Bora: A Multidisciplinary Artist Bridging Cultures

With nearly two decades of classical dance training, more than 225 stage performances and 14 screen productions, Rodali Bora has built a multidisciplinary artistic career spanning dance, cinema, filmmaking and education. An Assamese jiyori now based in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Bora has built her artistic journey around Sattriya , Bihu, cinema and storytelling. For her, dance is more than performance; it is a means of expressing identity, preserving cultural roots and sharing Assam’s heritage with audiences beyond the state. Bora began learning Bihu at the age of two and a half under Guru Ranjit Gogoi. She later trained extensively in Sattriya under gurus Ranjumoni Saikia, Rinjumoni Saikia and Dhruba Jyoti Pathak. Nearly 20 years of training have strengthened her command of nritya , abhinaya , devotional storytelling, and repertoires associated with Chali and Jhumura. She has so far completed more than 225 stage performances across India and the United Kingdom. A Doordarshan B-grade Sattriya artist, Bora was also awarded the CCRT National Junior Scholarship in Sattriya by the Ministry of Culture. Between 2017 and 2025, she contributed to cultural education by promoting Sattriya and Bihu in India and abroad. She also participated in CCRT showcases and workshops featuring Sattriya alongside India’s other classical dance forms. Originating in the Vaishnavite monasteries of Assam, Sattriya is one of India’s eight classical dance forms. Bora’s work seeks to introduce the tradition to international audiences while also showcasing Bihu, Assam’s prominent folk tradition. Bora’s artistic journey in the United Kingdom gained momentum in 2026. In February, she presented Sattriya and Bihu during ICCR Day celebrations at the Consulate General of India in Birmingham. She also performed Bihu at the High Commission of India in London as part of a State and Language Day celebration. In June, Bora performed Sattriya during a cultural programme connected with a seminar at the UK Parliament held during the visit of Auniati Satra Satradhikar Pitambar Dev Goswami . Another significant appearance came at Nritya Sangam at The Nehru Centre in London, where she opened the programme with a Krishna Vandana and presented Sattriya as part of a Kathak-Sattriya confluence before a full-house audience. The performance also marked a return to the venue for Bora, who had first visited The Nehru Centre as a young artist in 2013. Years later, she returned as a featured performer, this time representing Assam on the same platform. Her work was further recognised at Samarpana 2026 in Birmingham, where Deekshaa Arts presented her with the Youth Icon Award for her achievements in dance and performance. Bora had earlier represented Assam through a Bihu performance at the 2023 G20 Summit in Delhi. The year 2025 brought several major cultural appearances for Bora. Alongside another artiste, she performed Sattriya at the 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Odisha. She also performed at the WOFA World Forum at the Yashobhoomi Centre in New Delhi, introducing Sattriya to a diverse audience. That year, she performed at a Women’s Day programme attended by President Droupadi Murmu and participated in a cultural programme marking Bharat Bhavan’s 43rd anniversary in Madhya Pradesh. The event was attended by guests including Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and Minister Dharmendra Singh Lodhi. In November 2025, Sampad selected Bora to perform at Ujala — An Evening of Indian Classical Dance at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham. Her Sattriya performance was presented alongside Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi and Yakshagana before a British audience. Bora’s association with major cultural platforms also includes an Assam Day performance of Sattriya and Bihu at the 2018 India International Trade Fair at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. In 2024, she performed Bihu before an audience of 4,000 at the 7th Northeast Fest. Her early performance history includes a cultural programme connected with the 2012 London Olympics, a Titanic centenary commemoration in 2013 and an International Fellowship Day performance before the Governor of Assam in 2016. One of Bora’s formative milestones came in 2009, when she appeared in a one-hour televised production celebrating the music of Bhupen Hazarika. The production was conceived through the vision of senior journalist Jitumoni Bora and Rosy Bora and brought together her gurus for a classical-fusion interpretation of Hazarika’s compositions. Telecast on NE TV, the programme was watched by Hazarika from Mumbai, from where he sent his appreciation and blessings. Bora’s career in Assamese cinema began when she was four years old, when she played Mini in the telefilm Kabuliwala . Since then, she has appeared in 14 screen productions, working with actors and directors from the Assamese film industry. Her performance in Brahmakanya: The Colour of Hope earned her an international Best Actress honour at the 2023 Campinas Film Festival in Brazil. She also received regional Best Child Actress awards for her roles in Surjasta , Seema: The Story Untold and Phehujali . In 2025, her performance in Burkha: The Veil earned Best Actress honours at film festivals in Ahmedabad and Durgapur, as well as at the 8th Shaildhar Baruah Film Awards (NE), where she competed against talent from across Northeast India. Bora also appeared in Ronuwa: Who Never Surrenders , which received a National Film Award and the Rajat Kamal in 2021. Her interest in visual storytelling later took her behind the camera. While studying Film and Television Production at Sharda University, she directed the short film Bhram: An Illusion , which won a Best Director award at an international film festival in 2024. She completed her undergraduate studies with the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal in recognition of her academic achievements. Bora later moved to Birmingham for postgraduate studies in Mass Media at the University of Birmingham. Her multidisciplinary experience also includes radio acting and presenting with 92.7 BIG FM, stage hosting, filmmaking and painting. She has also played lawn tennis for 16 years. From a child artist in Assam to a multidisciplinary performer in the United Kingdom, Bora’s career spans dance, acting, filmmaking and education, with Sattriya and Bihu remaining central to her artistic identity. Her stated aim is to take Sattriya to a wider international audience, build meaningful collaborations and increase the visibility of the classical tradition. Through her work in Britain, Bora continues to connect her artistic journey with the cultural traditions of Assam.
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