DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 DHANKHAR BIASED AS CHAIRMAN, SAYS OPP, IT’S FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY Calling him Govt voice, Opp for no-trust against V-P; Chair is disrespected: BJP 72 100 122 86 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Maharashtra: No mismatch in VVPAT & EVM data, says poll panel EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, DECEMBER 10 WITH THE Opposition Maha VikasAghadi(MVA)allegingdiscrepancies in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Election Commission on Tuesday said no mismatch was found between the votes polled on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the corresponding tally of Voter Verified PaperAuditTrail(VVPAT)slipsin random counting. The State Election Commission said that as per the EC's guidelines, it is mandatory to count VVPAT slips of five randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly constituency/ Assemblysegment.Accordingly, VVPAT slip count of five randomly selected polling stations from each Assembly constituency was conducted on November 23, it said. “As per that, slip count of 1,440 VVPAT units from 288 Assembly constituencies of Maharashtra State has been tallied with respective control unit data. There is no discrepancy foundbetweenVVPATslipcount and EVM control unit count as perthereportsreceivedfromthe concerned DEOs (district electionofficers).Dueprocedurelaid by ECIhas been followed,” it said in a statement. After the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition wona landslide victory last month, the MVA has alleged the misuse of EVMs. Following the poll body's statement on Tuesday, the MVA parties reiteratedtheirearlierallegation on the voter turnout data, saying there was an CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 More about Opp optics, key question is will motion be accepted? Move is symbolic as Opp doesn’t have numbers; YSRCP, BJD, BRS keep distance MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 10 ACCUSING RAJYA Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar of being “explicitly partisan” in conducting the proceedings of the House and acting as an “impassioned spokesperson” of the government's policies at public fora, the Opposition INDIA bloc on Tuesday submitted a notice for bringing a resolution for removal of the Vice-President from office, making it the first suchactioninIndia’sparliamentary history. The Opposition move is seen as a symbolic exercise to make a political point since they don’t have the numbers to ensure the passage of the resolution, in either House, in the event of it being accepted. In 2020, the then Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had rejected the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 APURVA VISHWANATH NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 10 Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar in RS Tuesday. ANI RELATED REPORTS PAGE 8 than set in motion any parliamentary process. Unlikely to yield any result given that the Opposition does not have the numbers, if the motion is taken up in the House, and the ● opposition’sgrievancesare debated, it will be hard for Dhankhar to preside over those E THE NOTICE given by Opposition INDIA bloc MPs Tuesday to move a no-confidence motion against Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar seems more to make a symbolic statement EXPLAINED 11/12/2024 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Toll climbs to 7 in Kurla accident; BEST bus crashed into 22 vehicles over a 60-m stretch SAGAR RAJPUT MUMBAI, DECEMBER 10 A DAY after a BEST bus barrelled through vehicles at high speed inacrowdedmarketinKurla,the toll increased to seven on Tuesday. Forty-two others were critically injured in the accident. The Mumbai police, investigating the case, said the driver of thebuscollidedwith22vehicles, including a police van, cars, twowheelers and a handcart over a 60-metre stretch before hitting a wall and coming to a halt. “We have prepared a list of vehicles involved in the accident and so far we have 22 vehicles on record.Wearetryingtoascertain whether Sanjay More (the bus driver) hit more vehicles,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone V) Ganesh Gawade said. According to the police, the incident took place on SG Barve Marg near Anjuman-e-Islam SchoolinKurlaWestaround9.30 pm on Monday, when the BEST INSIDE ‘SHE OFTEN COMPLAINED ABOUT NARROW ROAD... IT CLAIMED HER LIFE’ MISHAP HIGHLIGHTS CONCERNS OVER WET LEASE MODEL CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A mangled autorickshaw and car after the bus crashed into them in Kurla. Sankhadeep Banerjee Uproar over Judge speech Two new buildings in Central Vista targeting minorities, SC seeks details from HC won’t have Patel’s design stamp PROPOSED DEFENCE ENCLAVE EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 10 TAKING NOTE of newspaper reports on a speech by Allahabad HighCourtjudgeJusticeShekhar Kumar Yadav at an event organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Supreme Court Tuesday sought details from the High Court. Addressing the event organisedbytheVHP’slegalcellonthe DAMINI NATH Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav court premises on Sunday, Justice Yadav made strong remarks on Muslim marriage practices and backed the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 While Fadnavis will retain Home, Finance will once again go to Ajit Pawar. Shinde is likely to settle for Urban Development. SHUBHANGI KHAPRE MUMBAI, DECEMBER 10 THE CABINET expansion of the BJP-ledMahayutigovernmentin Maharashtra is likely to be announced on Saturday. According to highly placed sources in the Mahayuti, the power sharing between the alliance partners have been finalised: the BJP will keep 20 ministerialposts,apartfromthat of the chief minister; Shiv Sena will get 12 berths; and the NCP 10. Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister along with Shiv Sena leader EknathShindeandNCPchief Ajit Pawar as DeputyChief Ministers at Azad Maidan on December 5. Fadnavishadthentoldmediapersons that the Cabinet expansion would take place before the winter session of the Assembly, which commences in Nagpur on December 16. In terms of portfolios,the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP are likely to veer towards maintaining status quo, which implies each party will retain the top portfolios which they held between 20222024, with minor changes in the other portfolios. While Fadnavis will retain the Home portfolio, the Finance ministry will once again go to Ajit Pawar. Whereas, Shinde is likely to settle for the Urban Developmentministrywhichhe CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IIT researchers take a rare look inside the foetal brain — one slice at a time PAGES 3, 4 bus was heading from Kurla station to Andheri. The seven deceasedwereidentifiedasAnaam Shaikh, Afreen Shah, Shivam Kashyap, Mohamed Islam Ansari, Vijay Gaikwad, Faruq Chaudhary and Kaneez Ansari. The driver was subsequently Maharashtra Cabinet expansion likely on Dec 14; parties to retain key portfolios NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 10 IN A first for the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, the Union Government has opened bidding for two Common Central Secretariat (CCS) buildings that will not be designed by Bimal Patel's firm, Ahmedabadbased HCP Design — the architectbehindtheproject'smasterplan and several key buildings, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The two buildings are to be built at the site of the old VicePresident’s residence. File ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 10 ON DECEMBER 10, researchers at IIT Madras unveiled a cuttingedge tool — a detailed 3D map of five developing foetal brains from the second trimester of pregnancy. This map — the most detailedhigh-resolution3Drepresentation of the foetal brain so far — provides cellular-level information between weeks 14 and 24, when the human brain undergoes rapid growth in size and complexity. CalledDHARINI,thebrainatlas, developed by the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at IIT Madras, is the largest of its kind and is the only one that has capturedthedevelopingbrainat such an early stage. The IIT researchers used advanced technology to visualise 5,000 brain slices and mapped more than HOW BRAIN ATLAS WAS CREATED ■ IIT Madras researchers used brains of five stillborns in second trimester ■ The brains were frozen and thinly sliced using complex robotic instrumentation ■ These slices were then stained, microscopically imaged in detail ■ The digitised images were put together to create a 3D map — offering rare insight into inside of a foetal brain 500 brain regions — a vital freeto-access information that is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 36 yrs after it changed teaching of law, NLSIU opens doors to liberal arts PAGE 1 ANCHOR SANATH K PRASAD BENGALURU, DECEMBER 10 THIRTY-SIX YEARS ago, the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru adopted a game-changing legal education programme in the formof afive-yearBA.LLBcourse which transformed legal education in India. However, with the launch of a three-yearBA (Hons) programme from 2025, the institution is now diversifying its academic portfolio with non-legal programmes. Whiletheseinitiativesaimto transformNLSIUintoamultidisciplinary university, they have raised eyebrows over whether the institution is overstretching its reach and drifting away from its founding principle of being a pioneering legal institution. Since its inception in 1988, the NLSIU has adopted the fiveyear integrated BA.LLB programme conceptualised by N R MadhavaMenon,whoisconsidered the father of modern legal education in the country. The programme’s interdisciplinary approach, combining law with humanities and social sciences, has been a benchmark for legal education, inspiring other law schools across India. However, with an evolving higher education landscape and increasingcompetitionfromprivate universities, the NLSIU is now seeking to redefine itself as a multidisciplinary university as part of its expansion plans. In fact, the Karnataka government has agreed to provide additional seven acres of land in the Jnanabharati campus of Bangalore University to NLSIU for a period of 30 years on lease rent basis at Rs 50,000 per acre per annum. Currently, NLSIU is The National Law School of India University in Bengaluru functioning in a 23-acre campus inside the BU campus. The NLS BA is designed to include a common core series of foundational courses jointly offered to all first-year students across the BA and BA.LLB programmes; option of selecting a major-minor track or a double major track in the disciplines of History, Sociology and Anthropology, Politics, Economics; learning a selection of Indianlanguages;andpractice courses in areas such as AI and Machine Learning, Filmmaking, Business Consulting, User Experience Research, Digital Journalism, Creative Writing, Entrepreneurship, Policy Advocacy and Analysis. NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy said that while the institution made attempts to modify and reshape the curriculum over the years, the changes have not been comprehensive. “The BA programme in India has traditionally been seen as a generalist degree. Unfortunately, this has often led to weaker academic and graduate outcomes in someuniversities.Whilethereare somenotablesuccesses–suchas strong honours programmes at Centraluniversitiesandafewprivate universities offering innova- tive, specialised BA programmes –theoverallmodelhasstruggled,” Krishnaswamy said. “AtNLS,weaimtoreposition theBAasahighlyaspirationaldegree, accessible through a public institution. We are not replicating existing models like those of Delhi University or private universities. Instead we are designing a programme that is responsive to contemporary needs and skill sets and professionally oriented with the demands of the 21st century,” he said. Dr Mohan Gopal, former Director of the National Judicial Academy,saidthattransforming CONTINUED ON PAGE 2