www.indianeXpreSS.com GoinG with the Crowd jaipur, june 21, 2026 How crowd work became comedy’s hottest art form — and sometimes its biggest headache screen Ricky Kej on Bollywood music overshadowing other Indian genres late city 12+4 pageS ₹6.00 d a i l y f r o m : a h m e d a b a d , Happening today lThe IndIan navy is sched- uled to commission three indigenously built frontline platforms, ‘Dunagiri, Sanshodhak, and Agray’ in Kolkata. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com poLiTics Page 6 c h a n d i g a r h , d e l h i , j a i p u r , K o l K a t a , vikas Pathak New Delhi, June 20 IRAN oN Saturday said it had closed the Strait of hormuz because of Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon and warned »cOnTInUed On Page 2 after the israeli airstrikes in south Lebanon, saturday. ap All prep in 38 days: Papers, translation, printing and transportation ThREE INDIAN-flaggedcrude oil tankers carrying “over 8.6 lakh million tonnes of cargo with 94 Indian crew members” crossed the Strait of hormuz safely on Saturday, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said. In a post on X, Sonowal said Bhubaneswar, June 20 A yoUNG woman interning with a leading NGo in odisha was molested and assaulted by dozensofvillagersinRayagada, while her male colleague was beaten up, in what police say is acaseof“childkidnapping”rumours spiralling out of control. abhinaya harigovind the tankers — Desh Vaibhav, Desh Vibhor and Sanmar Herald — had “successfully transited the Strait of hormuz todayandareenroutetoIndia”. “Safepassagesecured,”hesaid. Sayingthatthegovernment was working on “highest priority to secure India’s maritime interests”, he added: “our Ministry is actively coordinating with all relevant agencies to »cOnTInUed On Page 2 Delhi woman interning with NGO in Odisha’s tribal areas stripped, molested; 20 arrested sujit bisoyi New Delhi, June 20 Though the incident occurred on the evening of June 16, it came to light after the police arrested at least 20 people, including several juveniles, on Saturday. Thevictims—bothareaged 22; the woman is from Delhi andthemanfromSurat—have worked with the NGo as part of »cOnTInUed On Page 2 police screen houses, pg accommodation and hotels as part of round-the-clock monitoring of areas around examination centres ahead of neeT-ug re-examination, in jaipur saturday. rohit jain paraS In Latur, leak casts long shadow, students keep faith in their dreams inSide denied delhi police nod to continue proteSt, dipKe SayS won’t move page 6 leaKS Stain nta Scorecard verSuS other agencieS page 5 Pallavi smart Latur, June 20 LATURINMaharashtramaybe under the spotlight for the CBI probeintotheleakofNEET-UG papers,butthathasnotstopped Ramkisan Garad, a 79-year old farmer from a village in Majalgaon taluka in neighbouring Beeddistrict,fromgettingalong hisgrandsonforadmissioninto acoachingclassinthistier-2city. “My son and I have faced repeated farming losses due to uncertain rainfall. We dream that Shubham (grandson) will study and build a better life,” says Garad. Shubham is 16, has »cOnTInUed On Page 2 20 new national records in three months: Behind Indian athletics’ winning run nihal Koshie New Delhi, June 20 ThREENEWmen’s100metres records in two days; men’s 400 metres in sub-45 seconds; 8,000-point barrier crossed in decathlon; a five-decade-old marathon record down from 2 hours, 12 minutes to 2 hours, 11 minutesand58seconds.Injust over three months, from the end of February until early June, Indian records in athletics were broken 20 times. It’s happening across age groups, too. Nineteen-year-old lnumberoftimesrecordsbroken men 400m,5,000m, 400m,5,000m, 110mhurdles, 3x 110m hurdles , pole vault polevault marathon, half 1x marathon walk, decathlon 2x marathon walk 100m women gurindervir singh became the first indian to run 100m in under 10.10s last month 5000m, high jump, pole vault, half marathon walk, marathon walk mixed 4x100m relay 1x 1x *one decathlon marK waS wind-aided; data from feb 21 to june 13 Pooja Singh rewrote a 14-yearold women’s high jump record, 31-year-old Parul Chaudhary bettered her mark in the 5,000 metres. And half-a-dozen indoor marks have also been improved. Athletics Federation of India(AFI)spokespersonAdille Sumariwalla predicts a good show at the upcoming Commonwealth Games and the Asiad. “We have found cracks inthedam,intimethedamwill break. We moved to 29 medals at the Asian Games (in 2023). »cOnTInUed On Page 2 l FronTLine docTors in easTern drc warn oF LimiTed TesTing, insecuriTy, FragiLe heaLTh sysTems the outbreak is outpacing us: inside Congo’s fight against rare ebola strain page 1 anchor rinku ghosh New Delhi, June 20 DR KERRy Dierberg barely pausesasshecoordinatesshifts of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers for a 24-hour vigil atahealthcentreinGoma.This city, in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is Ground Zero of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak. p a t n a , p u n e , v a d o d a r a 3 India-flagged oil tankers cross Strait safely: Sonowal Iran cites Israel strikes in Lebanon, negotiators head to Switzerland NEET retest today, NTA ready with more security and quick processing »cOnTInUed On Page 2 n a g p u r , In run-up to talks, Iran says Strait of Hormuz shut again, US denies Tyre, Beirut, Islamabad , June 20 ThE NATIoNAL Testing Agency conducted a nationwide mock drill on Saturday to assess preparedness at centres and said it is all set to conduct a smooth and secure NEET-UG retest for 22.79 lakh candidates on Sunday. The NTA had on May 12 announcedthecancellationofthe NEET-UG exam held on May 3 after allegations of a paper leak surfaced in Rajasthan. The matter is now being probed by the CBI. “We have added personnel to reduce the waiting time for biometric authentication, so that the process is quick,” National Testing Agency Director General Abhishek Singh told The Indian Express. The NTA has attempted to ensure a balance of adequate security m u m b a i , vance says wIll leave fOr swITzerland sOOn, Team already There Kareem chehayeb, bassem mroue & munir ahmed in bengal, Modi takes aiM at tMc: ‘looters being sent to jail’ l u c K n o w , No matter what the care burden or shortage of medicines and supplies, we have to protect ourselves and healthcare workers” dr Kerry dIerberg, emergency medical coordinator at mSf A transit hub with a population over 1 million, it has a bustling cross-border economy with Rwanda, geography which has also made it a latent spreader zone. “It has been a month after the Ebola outbreak and it is still outpacingourresponseefforts. There are big gaps in surveillance, diagnosis, contact tracing and community engagement,” she says, speaking from Goma to The Indian Express. She rotates teams working »cOnTInUed On Page 2 Jaipur Ex-Maharashtra minister, 7 others acquitted in 2006 murder of Cong leader sadaf modak Mumbai, June 20 A SPECIAL CBI Court in MumbaionSaturdayacquittedeight accused,includingformerNCP minister Padamsinh Patil, in the 2006 murder of Congress leader Pavanraje Nimbalkar and his driver. Patil (86), a former Maharashtra home Minister and the main accused, is the brother of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar. Special Judge S R Navander said the prosecution had failed »cOnTInUed On Page 2 E. expLained key to sena crisis The verdict in the Pavanraje Nimbalkar murder case has political implications, too. The late Congress leader’s son Omraje Nimbalkar, who is among the Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs expected to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, had linked his political future to the outcome of this case. All eyes will now be on his next move. Page 6
Indian Express Limited is an Indian news media publishing company. It publishes several widely circulated dailies, including The Indian Express and The Financial Express in English, the Loksatta in Marathi and the Jansatta in Hindi.
