DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES SINCE 1932 `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM ‘REVIEW’ AHEAD OF BUDGET FinanceMinistry: GDPtogrowat 7%-plus,touch $5tnin3years CEA flags risk of geopolitical conflicts NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29 BEATING RETREAT The Army, Air Force, Navy and Central Armed Police Forces bands performed at the Beating Retreat ceremony, marking the end of Republic Day celebrations, in New Delhi on Monday. Amit Mehra Consultant Raj: 1,500, including from Big 4, ‘Like Putin in Russia’: in 44 govt depts; annual spend Rs 302 crore Kharge says this will be SHYAMLAL YADAV NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29 AS MANY as 44 departments in the Government of India have 1,499 consultants from external agencies, including the Big Four (Ernst & Young, PwC, Deloitte andKPMG),workingwiththem. Together, these departments incur an annual expenditure of Rs 302 crore on these consultants, according to data obtained Rajasthan BJP MLA objects to hijab in school, minister says will talk to CM HAMZA KHAN JAIPUR, JANUARY 29 THE BJP MLA from Rajasthan’s Hawa Mahal, Balmukund Acharya, has objected to girls wearing the hijab at a government school, promptingCabinet minister Kirodi Lal Meena to say he will talk to Chief Minister BhajanLalSharmaaboutenforcingabanontheheadcoveringin all government and private schools in the state. On Monday morning, AcharyavisitedtheGovernment Girls Secondary School in Jaipur’s Gangapol locality. In a video that surfaced afterwards, he can be seen pulling up a school administrator over some students wearing the hijab. In another video, he is seen asking school authorities to stop students from wearing the hijab in school,whichhasamixof Hindu and Muslim children. In another video, he is seen on stage, leading the students in chantsof “BharatMataKiJai”and “Saraswati Mata Ki Jai”. He can alsobeheardsaying,“Kuchbachhiyan nahi bol rahin, kya baat hai, mana kiya kya? (Some girls are not saying it. Have you been asked not to?)” He is also seen walking through the school and leading students in chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. Later, Muslim students gheraoed the Subhash Chowk police station, demanding that the MLA stop “vitiating the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 by The Indian Express under the Right To Information Act. This is in addition to 1,037 Young Professionals, 539 independentconsultants,354domain experts,1,481retiredgovernment officers, and 20,376 other lowpaid staff hired on contract by 76 departments, either directly or through outsourcing agencies. Theexpenditureontheseis,however, not available. RespondingtoanRTIapplication, the Department of Expen- YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW E AN XPRESS RTI APPLICATION diture under the Union Ministry of Finance, said 76 departments provided information about those taken on contract — these could be consultants working with external agencies, Young Professionals, independent consultants,domainexperts,personnel taken through outsourcing agencies, executives from PSUs, state-owned banks and regulatory bodies on loan, retired government employees, and those hired for housekeeping, multitasking,anddataentryfunctions. On October 4, in the run-up to Budget 2024-25, as The Indian Express had reported, the Department of Expenditure had CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Govt brings non-urea fertilisers under price control, fixes profit margins HARISH DAMODARAN NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29 THE NARENDRA Modi governmenthasbroughtdi-ammonium phosphate (DAP), muriate of potash (MOP) and all other such fertilisers that receive nutrientbasedsubsidy(NBS)supportun- der“reasonablepricing”controls. NBS fertilisers — unlike urea, whose maximum retail price (MRP)isfixedbythegovernment — are technically decontrolled. Under the NBS scheme, introduced in April 2010, their MRPs aresupposedtobemarket-determined and set by the individual companiessellingthem.Thegov- ernmentmerelypaysafixedpertonne subsidy on each of these fertilisers,linkedtotheirnutrient content or specific percentage of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K) and sulphur (S). But the Department of Fertilisers (DoF) has now, in an office memorandum dated CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Mummy, papa, I can’t do JEE’: Teen kills self in Kota HAMZA KHAN JAIPUR, JANUARY 29 PM Narendra Modi at the Pariksha Pe Charcha event. ANI Parents should not treat child’s report card as visiting card, says PM RADHIKA R NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29 INTERACTING WITH students at the seventh edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday motivated them to “compete with yourself andnotwithpeers”and urged parents not to treat their children’s report cards as their own visiting card. “Sometimes parents comparetheir childrenandtheseeds of competitiveness are sowed early in [student’s] life. I urge all parentsnottocomparetwochildren and compare their own child’s achievement with other’s,”thePrimeMinistersaid. “We have also seen that those parents who have not beenverysuccessfulintheirlives have nothing to say or want to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AN 18-YEAR-OLD girl died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota in the early hours of Monday, leaving behind a note that said she was taking the extreme step as a last resortbecauseshe“can’tdoJEE”. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kota, Dharamveer Singh said the teenager, Niharika Solanki, was living with her parents and preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), scheduled for January 31. A purported note left behind by her reads, “Mummy papa, I can’tdoJEEsoI(commit)suicide. I am a loser. Worst daughter. Sorrymummypapa.Yahilastoption he (This is the last option).” According to the police, her father works as a security guard at a bank, and she was the eldest of three daughters. The incident tookplaceunderBorkherapolice station limits in Kota, infamous CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Long before Oscar nomination, a father’s fight for justice in a Jharkhand village PAGE 1 ANCHOR ABHISHEK ANGAD RANCHI, JANUARY 29 “ISN’T IT just a five-minute video?” asks one villager. “No. It is a movie, more than one hour long,” replies another. A crumbling akhra (raised platform)builtaroundamassive fig tree in a Jharkhand village is the last place one would expect tooverhearadiscussiononToKill ATiger,anOscar-nominateddoc- umentary made by Indian-origin filmmaker Nisha Pahuja. Though the locals have only seen clips from the documentary, either online or on WhatsApp, they cannot fathom why the story of a 13-year-old’s gangrape by three of her relatives in their tiny village in May 2017 would interest an international audience. Besidescasualdiscussionson sunny weekdays, the akhra also doublesasthespotforallimportant village-level meetings. But for the father of the victim, now 20, it is a grim reminder of the marathon meetings held to “ne- To Kill A Tiger is directed by Indian-origin documentary filmmaker Nisha Pahuja gotiate the problem” of his daughter’s gangrape at a relative’s wedding late on May 9, 2017, in the village. Breaking down while speaking to The Indian Express, the victim’s father, 45, recalled, “My daughter said she would prefer dying over settling the matter.” The father, who is a dailywage mason, said the accused were related to them — two of them were his daughter’s cousins and one nephew, all in their early 20s then. He adds, “All those relationships died that day. I remember CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 last polls if Modi wins SUJIT BISOYI BHUBANESWAR, JANUARY 29 CONGRESS PRESIDENT Mallikarjun Kharge Monday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he would bring “dictatorship” and end the electoral processif voted back to power in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. Addressing a rally in Bhubaneswar,Khargeappealedtopeople to “save democracy”, and added, “Modi agar fir se aaye, toh na hi chunav honge, na hi karne dega (If Modi comes back to power, neither will there be CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge at a public meeting in Bhubaneswar, Monday. PTI GOVT & POLITICS CONG TARGETS TMC, SAYS TRIEDTO DISRUPT YATRA PAGE 8 THE INDIAN economyis likelyto grow at over 7 per cent in the coming years and is expected to becometheworld’sthird-largest economyin the nextthree years, with a GDP of $5 trillion, driven by domesticdemand along with supply-sidemeasuressuchasinvestment in infrastructure and measures to boost manufacturing, the Ministry of Finance said in a report on Monday. The report, titled “The Indian Economy – A Review”, has been prepared by the office of the Chief Economic Adviser. “It now appears very likely that the Indian economy will achieveagrowthrateatorabove 7% for FY24, and some predict it will achieve another year of 7% realgrowthinFY25aswell.If the prognosisforFY25turnsouttobe right, that will mark the fourth year post-pandemic that the Indianeconomywillhavegrown at or over 7 per cent. That would be an impressive achievement, testifyingtotheresilienceandpotential of the Indian economy. It augurs well for the future,” Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said in the preface. He, however, clarified that this was not the Economic CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D AANCHAL MAGAZINE Challenges ● ahead WHILE FLAGGING the three future trends — end of hyperglobalisation in global manufacturing, energy transition challenge, and advent of Artificial Intelligence — the Finance Ministry has said the Indian economy is better placed to take on these challenges because of the policies adopted over the last decade. BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY