DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 MEETING HELD IN NEW DELHI India, China ‘reflect on lessons learnt’, Doval and Wang to hold talks soon NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 5 DAYS AFTER completing the process of troop disengagement at two friction points along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh,IndiaandChinaheldthe first official-level talks in New DelhiThursday,“reflectedonthe lessons” learnt from the military standoff and agreed on the need for “effective border management” and “maintenance of peace and tranquillity” as part of bilateral pacts. At the meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs, the two sides also preparedforthenextmeetingof the Special Representatives on the E EXPLAINED SHUBHAJIT ROY Treading ● cautiously THE DISENGAGEMENT of troops in the Depsang Plains and Demchok and statements from Beijing and New Delhi suggest there’s willingness to repair bilateral ties. India will tread cautiously given the bitter experience of 2020 when the Chinese violated the LAC. boundary question – National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are the two SRs. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as (from left) Governor C P Radhakrishnan, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar look on, in Mumbai on Thursday. Narendra Vaskar BECOMES MAHARASHTRA CM FOR THIRD TIME T20over,nowTest:CMFadnavis; Shinde,AjitPawarareDeputyCMs Barring top 3, no other sworn-in; CM says portfolios on EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, DECEMBER 5 ISRO’s PSLV-C59 carrying European Space Agency's Proba-3 after its launch on Thursday. PTI ISRO PLACES EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY SATELLITES IN ORBIT PAGE11 ENDING TWO weeks of speculationonthenewrolesfortheleaders of the Mahayuti partners followingtheirspectacularreturnto powerinMaharashtra,Devendra Fadnavisof theBJPwassworn-in asChief MinisterThursdaywhile former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar of the NCP took oath of office as Deputy Chief Ministers. TheceremonyatAzadMaidan in Mumbai, where Governor C P AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION Amid key victories in fight against TB, states face one battle: Shortage of drugs Campaign in high-burden districts begins tomorrow as states scramble to stockpile after tenders cancelled, firms blacklisted ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 5 LAST MONTH, the World Health Organisation highlighted two significant milestones in India's fight against TB: an 18% dip in casesoverthepast10years,more than double the global rate; and a 24% reduction in deaths in the same period, higher than the global average of 23%. ThisframestheGovernment’s 100-day intensive campaign beginning December 7 to enhance detection in select high-burden districts but these bright spots in the mission to eliminate TB by 2025haveashadow:shortagein supply of key TB drugs since 2023,accordingtorecordsinvestigated by The Indian Express. India’s TB treatment sched- DIPPING SUPPLY OF TB DRUGS are in India of global TB cases ■ States with most cases: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan ■ Without treatment, nearly 50% patients face risk of death ■ Buffer stocks key; missing doses trigger resistance to drugs 0.76 cr 0.33 cr 0.25 cr 26% ■ 2022 ■ 2023 ■ 2024 Drugs for 1st phase of TB (Intensive) 2.04 cr 1.57 cr 0.50 cr THE NUMBERS Drugs for 2nd phase of TB (Continuous) Blister packs of 28 tablets each *upto June ule has two stages: a two-three month Intensive Phase (IP) marked by a combination tablet of four antibiotics, and Continuation Phase (CP), where a patient gets another combination medicine with three antibiotics for four to seven months. These are called fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs. Data for2022,2023and2024showsa CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WHY SHORTAGE OF DRUGS MATTERS ■ Stocks of TB medicines are maintained at district, state and national levels ■ Stocks for two months at block level and three months at district, state and national levels are maintained ■ Buffer stocks ensure that patients never go without medicines ■ Missing dosages can result in resistant, difficult to treat infection Radhakrishnanadministeredthe oath of office and secrecy to the three leaders, was a star-studded event,attendedamongothersby Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, AmitShah,NitinGadkari,Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Bhupendra Patel. Also present were actors Shah Rukh Khan, SalmanKhan,SanjayDuttandindustrialists Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla. Barring the top three of the Mahayuti, which secured 230 of the288seatsintheMaharashtra Assembly, no other leader was administered the oath of office – this suggested that the partners were still in talks to finalise portfolios for the incoming team. Under the rules, the state Cabinet can have a maximum of 43 ministers, including the Chief Minister. In first remarks after the NIKHILA HENRY NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 5 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MORE REPORTS PAGE 10 VESSEL HEADED TO IRAN SANK OUTSIDE INDIAN WATERS In joint Indo-Pak operation, 12 crew members rescued after vessel sinks EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AHMEDABAD, DECEMBER 5 THE INDIAN Coast Guard (ICG) along with Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) Wednesday rescued 12 crew members of a merchant vessel which sank in the North Arabian Sea while on its voyage from Gujarat’s Porbandar to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, according to an ICG statement issued on Thursday. The vessel ‘MSV Al Piranpir’ sank on Wednesday outside Indian waters, within Pakistan’s search and rescue region, said the statement. The Indian Coast AHMEDABAD, DECEMBER 5 EARLIER THIS week, a gang of 13 allegedly impersonated officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), carried out a fake raid at a jewellery firm in Gujarat's Gandhidham, and residences of itsowners,and“seized”gold,silver and cash to the tune of over Rs 25 lakh. The plot was busted after police were approached. Twelve of the 13 accused have been ar- WITHIN 24 HOURS of the Union power ministry waiving transmission charges for states buying electricity from Adani Green and Azure Power, the YSRCP-led Andhra Pradesh government signed a deal with Central utility Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which had awarded a total of 12 giga watt (GW) projects to these two companies. Thiswaiverof ISTS(interstate transmission system) charges is estimatedtohaveresultedinsavingsof 80paiseperunit(Rs1,360 croreayear),inawayincentivising the state to buy power from thetwoprojects.ISTSchargesare levied when power is wheeled from one state to another using the national grid. The Power Ministry’s order on November 30, 2021, essentially eased two conditions stipulated in an earlier order issued justaweekagoonNovember23. These two conditions were: (i) that the project be commissioned before June 30, 2025, and (ii)thatthepowerfromtheproject be within the renewable power obligation (RPO) of the state. RPO requires states to buy a certain percentage of its total power from renewable sources. The first 1,000 MW of Adani Green power is expected to be commissioned only in April 2025, with the balance beyond CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OCCRP DENIES ROLE OF FUNDING BJP says Rahul, news site trying to ‘derail’ India story; agents of Adani at work: Cong LIZ MATHEW & NIKHIL GHANEKAR NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 5 The rescue operation took place on Wednesday. Express Guard carried out the rescue operation in collaboration with the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA), and “the humanitarian search and rescue CONTINUEDONPAGE2 12 held for conducting ‘fake’ ED raid in Gandhidham, 1 still absconding EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Adani Green solar project: Govt waived transmission cost, sweetened deal rested so far, officials said on Thursday. Led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Vikas Yadav, who is a probationary IPS officer, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Mukesh Chaudhary, several probe teams were formed. Twelve accused, including a femalegangmember,werecaught within two days from Bhuj, Gandhidham, and Ahmedabad, whileoneisstillabsconding,said officials. A police statement on Thursdayunderlinedthattheac- cused admitted to committing the crime after they got to know thatthefirmhadearlierfacedaction from the Income Tax Department. The vehicles allegedly used to conduct the false raid, including three cars and one twowheeler, were also seized by the police along with a gold biscuit, a bracelet, mobile phones and a fake ID card. The accused have beenidentifiedasBharatShantilal Morvadiya, Devayat Basu Khachhar, Abdulsattar Ishaq AFTER A hiatus of two days, the Winter Session of Parliament plunged into chaos again Thursday, this time due to the rulingBJPtargetingLeaderof the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, accusing them of being part of a plan to “derail” India’seconomyand“disrupt”its democracy. Senior BJP MP Nishikant Dubey raised the matter in Lok Sabha, alleging that a “dangerous triangle”, comprising US billionaire investor George Soros, news portal OCCRP (Organized CrimeandCorruptionReporting Project), and the Congress with its leader Rahul Gandhi, were BJP’s Nishikant Dubey in Lok Sabha on Thursday. PTI trying “to derail India's success story” under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In Rajya Sabha, MP Sudhanshu Trivedi brought up the issue, with the BJP leaders saying that the Congress had stalled Parliament on the basis of various reports published by CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GUJARAT ANGRY FANS CREATE RUCKUS AFTER SCREENING OF PUSHPA 2 DELAYED PAGE 3 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 New markets for Pushpa 2: Muzaffarnagar lines up first day, first show PAGE 1 ANCHOR VIDHATRI RAO MUZAFFARNAGAR, DEC 5 FROM THREE 18-year-old polytechnic students who have waited for “two months” to a group of three wedding car decorators and a 52-year-old cloth salesmanseekingmanoranjan— at 11 am on Thursday, Chandra Talkies, a single-screen theatre in Muzaffarnagar town, is teeming with people who have come to watch Pushpa 2 (The Rule), the Hindi dubbed version of the Telugu “pan-Indian film” starring Allu Arjun. Minutes later, the film rolls and as Arjun makes an entry — in slow motion, of course — the 360-seater hall is filled with whoops of delight, shrill whistles and screams of “o teri”. With the success of S S Rajamouli’s Bahubali (Part 1 and 2), Telugu films that grossed an estimated Rs 250 crore in the Hindi-speaking markets, and KGF(Part1and2),Kannadafilms whose Hindi dubs made over Rs 500 crore, high-octane, masala tentpole films from the South have found a market in the North, particularly in the heartland states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. It’s a geographythatBollywood,whichhas overtheyearsmovedawayfrom films catering to the masses and which has been unable to create a new crop of superstars, has long vacated. Pushpa 2, which has been dubbedintoHindiandfiveother languages, is eyeing just this space. Last month, the filmmakers even launched the trailer in Patna — an unusual market for a Telugu film — where an estimated two lakh people cheered as Arjun addressed them and askedthemtoforgivehimforhis EXPRESS NETWORK ACTOR BOOKED FOR WOMAN’S DEATH IN STAMPEDE PAGE 11 The audience at a single-screen theatre in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday. Chitral Khambhati “thoda galat” Hindi. Producer and film business expert Girish Johar says, “With 12,000 screens across the world, Pushpa 2 is the widest theatrical release for any Indian film.” Of these, an estimated 1,000 screens are in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. Pushpa2’sstrategytofocuson its North Indian market comes after the success it had with Pushpa 1 (The Rise). When it was released in December 2021, the film was expected to run into a bigrelease— theRanveerSinghstarrer 83, a film on the 1983 Indian World Cup winning cricketteam—outsideof itscore Telugu market in Telangana and AndhraPradesh.Butsurprisingly, the film more than held its own. According to figures by Bollywood film trade analyst TaranAdarsh,themoviemadeRs 26.89 crore from its first week of theatrical run in North India. Sowhenitcametothesequel, it was expected to be a sure-shot bet, especially for single screens like Muzaffarnagar’s Chandra Talkies, where tickets are priced between Rs 100 and Rs 150. Ahead of the release on Thursday,thetheatresawonline bookings for 123 of its 360 seats — a “rare, good sign”, says theatre manager Mirza Asif Hussain, 34. Chandra Talkies theatre owner Sanjay Ghai, who owns five screens in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, says he is hoping to earn Rs 50 lakh during the theatrical run of the movie over the next three weeks. In the darkness of the movie CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad