eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Dancing the Distance NEWDELHI,LATECITY JULY20,2025 Bharatanatyam exponent Malavika Sarrukai on her dance journey 18+4PAGES,`7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, ` 15 SRINAGAR) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA THE WORLD RUSSIA POUNDS UKRAINE WITH MORE THAN 300 DRONES 34 DEAD AS BOAT CAPSIZES IN VIETNAM PAGE 12 GOVT & POLITICS KEY QUESTION: DID ELECTRIC FIRE IN TAIL OCCUR DUE TO COMPONENT FAULT AI crash: Probe looks for vital clues of electric malfunction in tail wreckage US regulator backs India probe, flags ‘premature and speculative’ reports Auxiliary Power Unit in tail intact, while the rear black box suffered extensive damage SUKALP SHARMA NEW DELHI, JULY 19 ADITI RAJA VADODARA, JULY 19 YSRCP MP MIDHUN REDDY HELD IN LIQUOR POLICY CASE ‘APPEASEMENT POLITICS’: HIMANTA SLAMS MAMATA P 6, 7 China begins construction of dam over Brahmaputra in Tibet K J M VARMA BEIJING, JULY 19 CHINA ON Saturday formally startedtheconstructionof aUSD 167.8 billion dam over the BrahmaputraRiverinTibet,close to the Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh. Chinese Premier Li Qiangannounced the start of the constructionof thedamatagroundbreaking ceremony in the lower reachesof theBrahmaputrariver, locallyknownasYarlungZangbo, atNyingchiCity,officialmediareported.Thegroundbreakingceremonytookplaceatthedamsite of Nyingchi's Mainling hydropower station in Tibet Autonomous Region, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The hydropower project, regarded as the biggest infrastructure project in the world, raised concerns in the lower riparian countries, India and Bangladesh. Theprojectwillconsistof five cascade hydropower stations, with a total investment estimatedataround1.2trillionYuan (about USD 167.8 billion), the reportsaid.Accordingtoa2023report, the hydropower station is expected to generate more than 300 billion kWh of electricity each year — enough to meet the annualneedsof over300million people. It will primarily deliver electricityforexternalconsumption while also addressing local demand in Tibet, which China officially refers to as Xizang. The project was approved in December last year. The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra river makes a huge U-turn to flowintoArunachalPradeshand then to Bangladesh. According to earlier reports, the size of the project would dwarfanyothersingleinfrastructureprojectontheplanet,including China’s own Three Gorges CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM INVESTIGATORS PROBING the June 12 Air India AI-171 disaster arecloselyexaminingtheBoeing Dreamliner wreckage which hold “vital clues” to what could have gone wrong in the 26 secondstheflightwasairborneafter lift-off from Runway 23 of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel The June 12 crash in Ahmedabad killed 260 people. File International Airport in Ahmedabad. Officials aware of the probe saidthewreckageof theempennage or tail assembly of the aircraft showed signs of a “con- tainedelectricfire”butrestricted to only a few components locatedintherear.Thetailhaddisengaged and remained largely unaffected by the post-crash CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 US NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chief Jennifer Homendy has termed recent media reports on the probablecauseof thecrashof Air India flight AI 171 as “premature and speculative”, and supported the recent public appeal issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) against speculation around the NTSB chief Jennifer Homendy ongoing air crash investigation. Homendy’scommentscome close on the heels of reports by a few US-based publications suggesting that deliberate action by one of the pilots was most likely CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 POLITICAL LEADERS TO JOURNALISTS Phones of 600 tapped ahead of 2023 polls in Telangana when BRS was in power: Probe Congress govt using case as political weapon to tarnish our image: BRS NIKHILA HENRY HYDERABAD, JULY 19 RIGHT BEFORE the 2023 Assembly elections, a Special Operations Team (SOT) of Telangana’s Special Intelligence Bureau(SIB)allegedlytappedthe phonesofatleast600individuals, an investigation spanning one yearbyHyderabadpoliceislearnt tohaverevealed.WhiletheBharat Rashtra Samithi government, led by K Chandrashekar Rao, was in power at the time, the Congress and the BJP were in opposition. Theallegedtappingtookplace between November 16 and November 30, 2023, the day the Assembly elections were held, a top-rankingpoliceofficertoldThe IndianExpress.“Whilethetapping, according to confessions and investigationintothecase,allegedly started in 2018-19, we have evidencethatprovesthatfor15days before the state assembly elec- OPP LINES UP ISSUES TO TARGET GOVT Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi during an online meeting with other INDIA bloc leaders ahead of the Monsoon Session. PTI PAGE6 BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao; Cong’s Revanth Reddy replaced him as CM in 2023 tions,atleast600individualswere placed under surveillance without cause,” the officer said. Individuals whose phones wereallegedlyputundersurveillance included political leaders, public representatives, psephologists, journalists, party workers andbusinessmen,theofficersaid. Theextentofthesurveillancewas such that the phonesof relatives, including spouses, and employees, including drivers, of the 600 personsofinterestwereallegedly CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, JULY 19 AFTERDECIDINGtoofferScience andSocialScienceattwolevels– basic and advanced — at the secondary stage, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) plans to extend the model to STEM subjects at the higher secondary level, starting with Class 11,TheSundayExpress haslearnt. The CBSE currently offers Mathematics at two levels in The maths experience CBSE’S EXPERIENCE with offering Mathematics at two levels in Class 10 shows that almost 30% of students prefer the basic level. In the 2023-24 Class 10 Board exam, 15,88,041 students registered for the standard paper, compared to 6,79,560 for the basic. Class 10 — standard and basic. The examination for the basic level is easier than that for the standard one, but the question papers for both levels are based on the same syllabus. In December last year, its governing body, the Board’s highest decision-making authority, approved a proposal to extendthismodeltoScienceand Social Science in Classes 9 and 10, paving the way for all three subjects to be offered in basic CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 7 kanwarias booked for Embassy: Students to US should keep assaulting CRPF jawan social media public for visa duration at railway station in UP DIVYA A NEW DELHI, JULY 19 WITHTHEnewacademicseason intheUSstartingnextmonth,all international students applying to study in the country will need to keep their social media profilespublicnotonlywhileapplying for a visa but also during its validity period — in effect, during their entire study course. ‘WE STOPPED LOT OF WARS... SERIOUS WARS’ 5 jets shot down… was getting bigger: Trump’s latest on India-Pak conflict SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JULY 19 AFTER REPEATEDLY claiming that he brokered peace between India and Pakistan during the military confrontation in May — a claim contradicted by the Indian government — US President Donald Trump has now said “five jets were shot down” during the conflict. He did not specify which of thetwocountrieslosttheaircraft or whether he was referring to thecombinedlossesofbothsides. SpeakingattheWhiteHouse during a dinner he hosted for Republican senators Friday, Trump said: “You had India, Pakistan, that was going… In fact, planes were being shot out of the air...four or five. But I think five jets were shot down actually… That was getting worse and worse, wasn’t it? That was looking like it was going to go… These are two serious nuclear countries. And they were hitting each other.” “But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger. And we got it solved through trade. We said Trumpsaidhe‘helpedsettle’ India-Paktensions,a claim he has made at least 20 times. PTI GOVT & POLITICS CEASEFIRE REACHED AS BOTH GOVTS HAD COMMON SENSE, SAYS KASURI PAGE 6 ‘You guys want to make a trade deal. We are not making a trade dealif youaregoingtobethrowingaroundweaponsandmaybe nuclear weapons. Both very powerfulnuclearstates,”hesaid. He said his administration achievedmoreinsixmonthsthan almost any other administration could accomplish in eight years. “Something I am very proud of, we stopped a lot of wars, a lot CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Amid Trump claims, V-P says no power can dictate to India CBSE plans to extend 2-tier STEM curriculum for Classes 11 and 12 APPLIES TO F, M AND J VISAS “All student and exchange visitor visa applicants (F, M and J visa classes) are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of personal social media profiles to ‘public’ in order to facilitate vetting necessary to establish the applicant’s admissibility to the United States,”saida spokespersonfromtheUSEmbassyinNew Delhiinresponsetoaqueryfrom The Indian Express. “Security vetting runs from FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT the time of each application, through adjudication of the visa, and afterwards during the validity period of every issued visa, to ensuretheindividualremainseligible to travel to the United States,” the spokesperson said. Lastmonth,theEmbassyhad cited “public safety and national security” in the visa process whilemandatingthoseapplying to study in the US to make their CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar with Officer Trainees of 2024 batch of the Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) at Vice-President’s Enclave. PTI EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JULY 19 AMIDREPEATEDclaimsfromUS President Donald Trump that he had brokered the ceasefire betweenIndiaandPakistaninMay, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar Saturday said there was no power in the world that could dictate to India on how to handle its affairs. Addressingagatheringof the MANISH SAHU CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK LUCKNOW, JULY 19 SEVEN KANWARIAS, including four minors, were booked for allegedly assaulting a 50-year-old Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan at Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur railway station on Saturday morning. 2024 batch of officers from the IndianDefenceEstatesServiceat V-P Enclave, Dhankhar said: “Don’t be guided by narratives outside. All decisions in this country, a sovereign nation, are taken by its leadership. There is nopowerontheplanettodictate India how to handle its affairs. We do live in a nation and nations that are a comity. We work in togetherness, we work in tandem. We have mutual respect, PATNA HOSPITAL MURDER: 10 PICKED UP IN WEST BENGAL 15-YEAR-OLD SET ABLAZE IN ODISHA, IS CRITICAL PAGES 8, 9 The jawan was returning to duty in Manipur. Videograb Meet artist behind Sachin portrait at Lord’s: ‘Extraordinary... never seen him play’ EXPRESSINENGLAND SANDEEP DWIVEDI LONDON, JULY 19 WHEN CELEBRATED painter Stuart Pearson Wright first met Sachin Tendulkar in 2007 at his homeinMumbai,hehadneither seen him play nor was he aware of his stardom. A rare Britisher with no interestincricket, Stuart blames his aloofness towards sports to his PE teacher at school who ignored kids who were not good at football. Commissioned by the MCC to draw a portrait of the Indian batting legend, which now hangs at the Lord’s museum and will later be relocated permanentlytothepavilion,Stuartsays his ignorance about Sachin wasn’t a deterrent as he wasn’t sketching his biography. His work was an effort to “capture the sense of the individual” and his art was a response to the “person’s humanity”. “A lot of portraitpainterssaytheyaretryingtocapturethesoulof thesubject, and I feel that’s a bit of a cliche,” Stuart tells The Indian Express after the unveiling at Lord’s last week. Itwasarareoutingtoasports arena for the artist who once requested a filmstar he met on the street to pose for him and has paintedtheportraitsof best-selling author J K Rowling, King Charles,PrincePhilipandthelate QueenElizabeth’sCorgis,a composition that was not for the public eye. The Sachin portrait drew long queues during the Lord’s Stuart Pearson Wright (left) with Sachin Tendulkar during the unveiling of the latter’s portrait at Lord’s. MCC Test between India and England. It’s from the time Sachin was in his early 30s, still six years away from retirement. “People call him a god... it’s extraordinary... but for me, he was just another guy I was drawing. When I met him in 2007 to take his picture for the portrait, Igoton very well with him. I found him very quiet and humble. I’ve never seen him play but someone told me that off thepitchheisquietbutwhen you see him bat he becomes like a tiger,” says Stuart. Thefacehasthosesteelyeyes and that fierce focus that was visible when he took on a Glenn McGrath or a Wasim Akram. Stuart captures what he always looks for -- the sense of individuality. In Sachin’s case, it’s that feline alertness when batting, the tiger inside a soft-spoken man. “Myportraitsaren’talways as photographic as this one, but Lord’s specified in the contract that they wanted this particular painting to be a very photographic style of likeness. If you lookatmyotherpaintings,you’ll see I often elongate or distort facial features of it,” he says. Meeting his subject after 2007attheunveiling,Stuartsays Sachin has changed. “He’s got a good skincare routine. He’s eating the right things. He is disciplined in his life as he is in his cricket. So, I think it really shows in his face,” says the artist, who took 5-6 weeks to complete his work, an oil painting on an aluminum surface. “He was happy with my work, it was first approved by him,” he says. The “work” started with the artist drawing a sketch with a charcoal stick. “Istarted with the head first. And then did the shirt... A lot of people have commented on the ear. The ear seems to be a very popular ear. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2