DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2022, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES HOME MINISTER AMIT SHAH HOLDS REVIEW MEETING Targeted killings: J&K moves staff from minority communities to ‘safer’ locations BY UNNY E E X P L A I NE D BUSINESS AS USUAL HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 GRAPPLING WITH the spate of targetingkillingsinKashmir,the J&K administration has started postingallemployeesbelonging tominoritycommunities,includingKashmiriPandits,to“saferlocations” within the Valley. In New Delhi Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, NSA Ajit Doval,Armychief GeneralManoj CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 J&K L-G Manoj Sinha after a meeting in New Delhi on Friday. Prem Nath Pandey Killings cast ● shadow THE SPATE of targeted killings in the Valley has had non-locals in a state of panic. This comes at a time when the UT is gearing for the Amarnath Yatra. Tourists have also been heading to J&K and airlines are mounting flights like never before. AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION - PART 1 A national math problem: how to teach Class 5 kids after 2 years lost UP INVESTORS’ SUMMIT PM: Rs 80,000 cr investment, UP will drive India growth story Global situation a big opportunity, India a reliable partner, says Modi ASAD REHMAN LUCKNOW, JUNE 3 MAKING A strong pitch for the state that he represents in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the ground-breaking ceremony of the UP Investors Summit in Lucknow on Friday by laying the foundation for 1,406 projects worth Rs 80,000 crore. Modi, who is the Varanasi MP, announced the investment while addressing a gathering that included Union Defence Minister RajnathSingh, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gautam Adani of Adani Group, KumarMangalamBirlaof Aditya Birla Group, Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani Communities and Matthieu Eyriesof Paris-basedAir Liquide. In his address, Modi thanked investors for having “trusted the power of UP’s youth” who “will be the biggest beneficiaries” of TOP FIVE PROJECTS ■ NIDP Developers Pvt Ltd: Rs 9,100 cr ■ Medical Device Park: Rs 3,800 cr ■ Noida Apparel Export Cluster: Rs 3,500 cr ■ Adani Enterprises Ltd: Rs 2,706 cr ■ SIFY Technologies Ltd: Rs 2,692 cr the investment. “This record investment will create opportunities for thousands of jobs in the state. Along with India, it shows the increasing trust in the country’s and UP’s growth story,” he said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TATA FIRM WINS BID TO BUILD JEWAR AIRPORT PAGE 14 President Ram Nath Kovind and PM Narendra Modi at a public meeting in Paraunkh village in Kanpur on Friday. Vishal Srivastav President welcomes PM: ‘Sanskar trumps protocol’ MAULSHREE SETH PARAUNKH (KANPUR DEHAT), JUNE 3 PARAUNKH, THE remote village inUP’sKanpurDehatwhereRam Nath Kovind hails from, became the venue of an unusual sight whenthePresidentbrokeprotocol to receive Prime Minister In Hyderabad, 2 of 5 juvenile accused in teen’s rape arrested, BJP alleges VIP links SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, JUNE 3 HYDERABAD POLICE said Friday night they had arrested two of five juveniles allegedly involved in the gangrape of a 17-year-old in an upscale area of the city a week ago. (Left to right) Harish, Siddharth and Keerti, students of Class 5 A back after the pandemic in their mathematics class at Delhi Government’s Veer Savarkar School. Their teacher Neha Sharma (below) has her task cut out. Photographs by Abhinav Saha A MATH PROBLEM Over two months, The Indian Express tracked a mathematics class of 10-year-olds in a Delhi government school to find how a teacher is racing against time to plug their critical learning gaps in the wake of the pandemic. The story of teacher Neha Sharma and the 38 children in her Class 5 A illustrates the unprecedented challenge playing out in countless classrooms across the country SUKRITA BARUAH NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 SIDDHARTH CANNOT subtract 13 from 21 because this entails borrowing. Keerti can do only simple division, so 59 divided by 7 is a struggle since she hasn't understood the concept of a remainder. Harish's climb is steeper: he cannot identify one-digitnumbers,something he should have been able to do in pre-school. All three are 10-year-olds, students of Class 5A at the Veer Savarkar Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, a Delhi government school in Kalkaji. Each should have been fluent in these foundationalmathematicalskillsthat are taught in Class 3 or earlier. But this class of 38 children — 20 girls and 18 boys — were last in school in Class 2. Now back after two years of apandemic andalockdownthat touched every aspect their lives, their teacher Neha Sharma, 31, has a problem, one that teachers across the country are grappling with,highlightedbytherecently released results of the National AchievementSurvey(NAS):academic performances in schools across the country, including in the national capital, slipped be- CLASS 5 A, VEER SAVARKAR SARVODAYA KANYA VIDYALAYA: REPORT CARD ON DAY ZERO Total students 38 Can do simple division 20 Cannot do simple division, can do 2-digit subtraction 2 Cannot do subtraction, can count and identify numbers 10-99 14 Cannot identify 2-digit numbers, can count and identify numbers 1-9 1 Cannot identify single-digit numbers, beginner 1 TOMORROW: SITTING IN CLASS FOR FIVE WEEKS OF CATCH-UP low levels recorded in 2017, except in Punjab and Rajasthan. Over two years of the pandemic, much of these Class 5 kids’learninghappenedthrough weekly worksheets and activities shared on WhatsApp. But with access to devices and data uneven, digital learning re- mained, at best, very patchy. So, how will Sharma meet this unprecedented challenge: bringingherclassuptospeedfor Class 5? Given that the students havedifferentcompetenciesand levels of learning, how does she calibrate her teaching, at differentspeedsfordifferentchildren? To investigate this, The Indian Express sat in for five weeks tracking the 38 children of Class 5A right from their first day of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Behind (withdrawn) Aadhaar advice, a drugs bust in Bengaluru and an arrest PAGE 1 ANCHOR SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 ON MAY 29, the Centre withdrew an advisory issued two days previously by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI),whichadvisedpeopleto not give photocopies of their Aadhaar to establishments such ashotels,cinemas,etc.toprevent their possibile “misuse”. The advisory could be “misinterpreted”, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement. The Indian Express has learnt thatthe original advisory, issued on May 27 by the UIDAI’s regional office in Bengaluru, was triggeredafteranindividualwho was allegedly part of an international narcotic drugs racket, was caught using fudged Aadhaar cardstobookillegalexportcargo of prohibited substances. "One of the shipments, des- tined for Australia, was seized at the Bengaluru airport," an official said. It is learnt that the matter was refered to the Chennai Police, which then arrested a person for forging an Aadhaar card of an individual from Andhra Pradesh. The Customs Intelligence Unit reportedly seized 4.4 kg of ephedrine crystals worth Rs 90 lakhthatwasconcealedinashipmentof garments.Thecargowas intercepted at the international courier terminal of Bengaluru airport. The accused individual was apprehended on May 20. In its May 27 advisory, UIDAI asked people to make sure they sharedtheirAadhaardetailsonly with entities that have a "user licence" from the Authority, but did not specify how they should verify this. While withdrawing the UIDAI's advisory, the IT Ministry, however,saidthatpeopleshould only exercise "normal prudence", and assured that the "Aadhaar identity authentication ecosystem has provided CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The assault happened on the evening of May 28, with a complaint being lodged on May 31. However, it took police another threedaysto takeaction.TheBJP alleged that two of the accused are being sheltered by their political families. On Friday night, DCP Joel Davis said two of the five sus- pects had been taken into custodyandwerebeingquestioned. Earlier, SHO S Rajashekar Reddy told The Indian Express that the gangrape had been confirmed and they had identified the accused. “We are searching for them.” There was no comment on the BJP’s allegation. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NarendraModi,whohadarrived for a brief visit on Friday. While delivering a speech later, Modi said that Kovind told him he had come to the helipad personally since the Prime Ministerwas an“atithi(guest)of his village”. Modi added that though he felt “embarrassed” by the gesture, it showed that the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GOVT & POLITICS KERALA BYPOLL DEALS BLOW TO CPM, K-RAIL PROJECT; BOOSTS CONG PAGE 6