DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA Seven yrs after IAF plane went missing, its debris found off Chennai coast REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES AUV MAKES ‘ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY’ ● `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 PM INAUGURATES INDIA’S LONGEST SEA BRIDGE IN MUMBAI Defence Ministry confirms wreckage is of AN-32 that had 29 on board AMITABH SINHA NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with workers after inaugurating the bridge in Mumbai on Friday. ANI The AUV spotted the debris of the plane during its trial in the Bay of Bengal. RELATED REPORT PAGE 12 they first thought it might be the remains of a ship-wreck. Some nearby areas were also searched and a few metal pieces were observed.Wesenttheimagestothe Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force.TheIAFidentifieditastheir plane,” M Ravichandran, Secretaryof theMinistryof Earth SciencesunderwhichNIOTfunctions, told The Indian Express. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 ‘Our questions remain unanswered’: Father of Flight Lt Kunal from Pune SUSHANT KULKARNI PUNE, JANUARY 12 FOR RAJENDRA Barpatte, father of Flight Lieutenant Kunal, who was among the 29 people on board the IAF’s AN-32 transport aircraft that went missing in 2016 over Bay of Bengal, the newsof thepossiblediscoveryof the plane’s debris has brought back the memories of “worst phase” of the life. He says that while he was hoping that such a news would bring closure, it has again raised all the “unanswered questions” Flight Lieutenant Kunal which he has been raising. 27-year-old Flt Lt Kunal, whose family is from Nigdi area of PimpriChinchwad,wasanavigationofficerpostedwiththe33 Squadron of the IAF, which is a transport squadron under the Southern Air Command and is located at Air Force Station Sulur CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY 84 112 137 80 Atal Setu message to nation is... every corner connected: Modi SIGNALS STATUS QUO FOR RBI SWEETY ADIMULAM AANCHAL MAGAZINE MUMBAI, JANUARY 12 INAUGURATINGTHE22-kmAtal Setu, the country’s longest sea bridge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that the bridge symbolised a developed India even as he took a swipe at the previous governments at the Centre, saying they failed to deliver on their promises. “AtalSetuisthepictureof developed India. This is a glimpse of what a developed India is goingtobelike,”thePrimeMinister said during the inauguration of theMumbaiTransHarbourLink, which has formally been named as Atal Bihari Vajpayee SewariNhava Sheva Atal Setu. “In a developed India, there will be facilities for all, there will beprosperityforall,therewillbe speedandtherewillbeprogress. IndevelopedIndia,distanceswill be reduced and every corner of thecountrywillbeconnected.Be it life or livelihood, everything willgooncontinuously,without interruption.Thisisthemessage of Atal Setu,” he said. The six-lane bridge, which will be thrown open to the public Saturday morning, connects Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle in Raigad district. It will enhance connectivity from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, Pune, Goa, and South India. The Prime Minister travelled the entire length of the bridge from Mumbai to reach the site in Raigad district where the inaugural function was held. Addressing the public gathering, he said, “Today is a historic CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Public can use MTHL from 8 am today; govt tweaks toll further EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, JANUARY 12 THE MUMBAI Trans Harbour Link(MTHL),whichwasinaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra ModionFriday,willbe accessibleforpublicuseby8am, Saturday. The Maharashtra government has also tweaked the toll rates for the road, which was earlier announced to be Rs 250 for passenger vehicles. As per a new notification is- EDUCATION MINISTRY ORDERS INQUIRY Cloud over degree, IIM Rohtak director faces financial probe IIM defends Rs 2-cr variable pay citing his ‘performance’ RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 MONTHS AFTER the Union Government amended the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Act, granting it greater say in the functioning of the 20 premier business schools, the EducationMinistryhaslaunched an inquiry into the accounts of IIM-Rohtaktoinvestigateallegationsoffinancialirregularities,including a complaint that the institute“illegally”transferredRs2 crore to its director's account as “variable pay.” The Indian Express has learned that the ministry, a little less than two months ago, IIM-Rohtak Director Dheeraj Sharma. File tasked its Principal Chief Controller of Accounts with investigating allegations of funds embezzlement by the institute's director, Dheeraj Sharma, in the formof “variablepay”and charging of “exorbitant fees from students,” among other concerns. The PPCA was asked to submit a “detailed report” on the same. The Indian Express called and sent a text message to Sharma for his comment on the govern- ment inquiry but he was unavailable. Significantly, Sharma is already under government scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting his educational qualifications to secure his initial term as IIM Rohtak’s director in 2017. The job required a first-class Bachelor’sdegree,buthehadobtained a second division at the undergraduate level. The government acknowledged this discrepancy in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in March 2022, only after he completedhisfirstterm.Despite objections from the ministry representative on the institute's Board of Governors (BoG) due to CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Stadium repairs: Ranji disaster wakes up Bihar govt PAGE 1 ANCHOR SANTOSH SINGH PATNA, JANUARY 12 WHENMUMBAIandBiharfaced off for a Ranji Trophy fixture at Patna’sMoin-ul-Haqstadiumon January6,neithertheplayersnor thecrowdcouldhaveanticipated the sort of impact the match would have. Thestadium,hostingasignificant fixture after 27 years, was barelyreadyforone—someparts were under construction, others undergoing repair, and visitors were welcomed by overgrown grassintheseatingarea.Eventhe A notice cautioning visitors against using the damaged gallery area; a rough patch of the field at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna. Nagendra Kumar Singh scoreboard was not clearly visible from all parts of the ground. With images from the match causing embarrassment to the state government, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav visited the stadium on Friday. “We are aware of the people's grouseoverthepoorconditionof thestadium…Wehaveprepared a detailed project report for the structure,” Tejasjwi said, adding that as a sportsman himself, he could relate to the situation. “The CM has directed me to monitortherenovationwork.We plan to make it an international stadiumwithasportscomplex,a five-star hotel, restaurant, drainage system and parking lot with connectivity to the upcoming Patna Metro,” he added. On Thursday, the state government also decided to create a full-fledged sports department, which had ceased to exist after JharkhandandBiharsplitin2000. The new department will have Jitendra Rai as minister and B Rajinder as secretary. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 sued late Thursday, the toll for passengervehiclesfortheSewriShivaji Nagar (Ulwe) stretch has been fixed at Rs 200 and Rs 50 for the Shivaji Nagar-Gavhan stretch. The new rates will kick in from Saturday and will be applicable for a year. So, while the sea bridge will be thrown open for traffic by Saturday morning. The gazette notification states that the toll for the SewriGavhan stretch, which is the entire distance of the sea bridge, CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Retail inflation surges to 4-month high; IIP slips to 8-month low NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 RETAIL INFLATION surged to a four-monthhighof 5.69percent in December driven by higher prices of food items such as pulses, spices, fruits and vegetables, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) Friday showed. SeparatelyreleasedNSOdata also showed that factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slippedtoaneight-monthlowof 2.4 per cent in November as against11.6percentamonthago, and 7.6 per cent a year ago, due to a high-base effect and slower growth in manufacturing, mining and capital goods output. This marked the second con- E E X P L A I NE D A ROUTINE testing of a recentlyacquired automatic underwater vehicle (AUV) by the Chennaibased National Institute of Ocean Technology stumbled upon a large debris that eventually solved the seven-year-old mystery of a missing transport plane of the Indian Air Force. The AN-32 transport plane, with 29 people on board, was flying from Chennai to Port Blair on July 22, 2016 when it had gone missing. The AUV, used for deep sea exploration up to a depth of 6,000 metres, was imported from Norway by the NIOT about six months ago for its own use, and was being lowered in the Bay of Bengal last week for testing and training purposes, when it spotted a few metal parts. “The first thing it saw was a chakra,athree-colouredemblem. When the people at NIOT saw it Non-food, non-fuel ● eases CORE INFLATION declining to a 48-month low is a big positive. On the industrial output side, the slide in capital goods production, an indicator of investment momentum, and consumer durables output, a proxy for consumption demand, are continuing areas of concern. secutivemonthofriseinheadline retail inflation and four calendar years and a quarter (51 months) of retail inflation staying above CONTINUED ON PAGE 4