eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Stringing Together AHMEDABAD,LATECITY MARCH16,2025 PV Sindhu and Datta Sai Venkata on what brought them together 14+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CRACKDOWN P8 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW U U LALIT FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA Amid peace talks, Ukraine minister, other key players in India next week Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 AT A time when talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war have gained pace, after the disastrous White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is scheduled to reach India on Monday. Sybiha, who is coming to attend the Raisina Dialogue — a three-dayconference(March1719) organised by the Observer Research Foundation and the Ministry of External Affairs — will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and may call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, sources told The Indian Express. US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will be here for the Intelligence chiefs' conference being hosted by India on Sunday, and she will also likely meet Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval among others, apart from attending the dialogue. While Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is not coming to India, Alexander A Dynkin, president of the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and InternationalRelationsatRussian Academy of Sciences, who is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD US visa revoked for ‘supporting Hamas’, Indian student at Columbia self-deports Ranjani Srinivasan was on F-1 visa as a doctoral student: Homeland Security DIVYA A NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 AN INDIAN PhD student at ColumbiaUniversity,whosevisa was recently revoked by the Donald Trump administration forallegedly“advocatingforviolenceandterrorism”bysupporting Hamas, has self-deported and left the country. Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, entered the US on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, the Department of HomelandSecurity(DHS)saidin a statement Friday. Stating that Srinivasan was “involvedinactivitiessupporting” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 US looks at travel curbs on over 40 countries, Bhutan in red list WASHINGTON, MARCH 15 Ranjani Srinivasan’s visa was revoked on March 5. PTI THE DONALD Trump administration is considering targeting the citizens of as many as 43 countriesaspartof anewbanon travel to the United States that would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term, according to officials familiar with the matter. A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomatic and security officials suggests a “red” list of 11 countries whose CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ● Afghanistan ● Bhutan ● Cuba ● Iran ● Libya ● North Korea ● Syria ● Venezuela ● Somalia ● Sudan ● Yemen INSIDE VoA TO BE DOWNSIZED ORANGE Visas sharply restricted ● Belarus ● Eritrea ● Haiti ● Laos ● Myanmar ● Pakistan ● Russia ● Sierra Leone ● South Sudan ● Turkmenistan Source: NYT PAGE12 U.S. EXPELS SA ENVOY DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 THE ELECTION Commission (EC) is holding a meeting with the top officials of the Union Home Ministry, Law Ministry and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) next week to discuss the issue of linking Aadhaar numbers with the voter identity cards, EC sources said Saturday. Following an amendment to theRepresentationof thePeople Act, 1951 in 2021 enabling the linking of the Aadhaar numbers with the Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), the EC began col- lecting the Aadhaar numbers from electors on a voluntary basis in 2022. However,theEChasnotused the Aadhaar numbers in its revisions of the electoral rolls so far. The exercise was meant to aid theCommissionindetectingduplicate registration of voters in order to clean up the electoral rolls. The Aadhaar-EPIC linking CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AFTER THE HIJACK Pakistani soldiers guard a tunnel days after a train hijack by militants left 31 people, including 23 Army personnel, dead, at Bolan in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Saturday. Reuters From V-C to ‘Oman high commissioner’: How lure of VVIP life landed 66-yr-old in police net KRISHN SEKHAR Rana, who was arrestedbytheGhaziabadpolice on Thursday for impersonating the “High Commissioner of Oman”, longed for a “VVIP life”, briefly harboured political ambitions, and managed to get high-rankingpostsinprestigious US top market for India’s aluminium, new tariffs threaten $1-billion exports AGGAM WALIA NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 THE DONALD Trump administration’s decision to raise tariffs on aluminium imports from 10 to 25 per cent starting March 12 is set to hit Indian exporters, for whom the United States has become the largest international market for aluminium products. In 2023-24, India’s aluminium exports to the US stood at $946 million (Rs 7,831 crore), afterexceeding$1billionineach of the previous two financial years, according to official trade data. Exports have surged in recentyears,upfromjust$350millionin2016-17,whenTrumpbeganhisfirsttermasUSPresident. WhileIndiaaccountsforonly 3 per cent of US aluminium imports, it is the largest supplier of aluminium conductors — stranded wires and cables used in electrical applications. India is also the world’s second-largest aluminiumproducerafterChina, though much of its output is consumed domestically. As the new 25 per cent tariffs are significantly broader than those imposed in 2018, covering a wider range of semi-finished and finished aluminium products, it may disrupt the recent E More products ● hit THE NEW 25% tariffs imposed by the US cover a wider range of semi-finished and finished aluminium products, along with derivative goods — from machinery components to knitting needles — posing challenges for India’s fragmented downstream aluminium industry. growth momentum of firms with strong export focus on the US. However, while some may see a hit in revenues, the overall impact is expected to be limited, as aluminium exports form a small share of business for most companies. The US, despite being India’s top market, accounts for around 12 per cent of total aluminium exports. In 2024, the US imported nearly 38 per cent of aluminium conductorsbyweightfromIndia, valued at $130 million. In 2023, imports peaked at $261 million, rising from just $40 million in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CLINICAL TRIAL RESULTS CEC Gyanesh Kumar NEW DELHI, DEHRADUN, MARCH 15 PAGE 12 RED All travel banned EC to meet Home, Law, UIDAI officials on linking voter card and Aadhaar SHYAMLAL YADAV, AISWARYA RAJ & NEETIKA JHA STARMER TELLS LEADERS TO ‘KEEP PRESSURE’ ON PUTIN OVER UKRAINE TRUCE PROPOSED TRAVEL BAN LIST CHARLIE SAVAGE & KEN BENSINGER FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT EXPLAINED DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA KrishnSekharRana,66,wasarrestedbyGhaziabadpoliceon Thursdayforimpersonatingthe‘HighCommissionerof Oman’ universitiesdespitequestionable qualifications, according to several associates and colleagues The Indian Express spoke to. The66-year-oldwasarrested after the Ghaziabad Police Commissionerate and District Magistrate’sofficereceivedaletter requesting “necessary protocol and security arrangements” for “Dr (Prof) K S Rana, High Commissioner of the Sultanate of Oman (Muscat)”. Except, Ghaziabad Police CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GUJARAT India’s CAR T-cell therapy for cancer patients shows 73% response rate: Lancet Also warns of high incidence of complication affecting immune cells ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 ILLEGAL PART OF 'BOOTLEGGER'S' HOUSE DEMOLISHED IN MORBI FIREFIGHTERS RESCUE 10 FROM ELEVATOR INSIDE HIDDEN LIFT WELL PAGES 3, 4 THE CLINICAL trial results of India’s first CAR T-cell therapy, published in The Lancet, showed a 73 per cent “response rate” in patients suffering from specific types of blood cancer. However, the results also pointed to the “challenge for broader clinical adoption” due to the high incidence of a known complication of CAR T-cell therapies, where the immune cells get overactive, leading to hyper-inflammation and organ failure. Response rate refers to the percentage of patients who respondedtothetreatment—cases in which the progression of cancer was either halted or reduced. The results — from the Phase I and II trials, where researchers assessedsafetyandeffectiveness against a given condition — are significant as this is the first clinical trial of CAR T-cell therapy from India to be published in an international journal. CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, trains the body’s immune cells to identify and destroycancercells.Thistreatment is designed for specific types of blood cancer, and is given in cases where cancer has relapsed or there has been no response to first-line treatment. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Vadodara crash: ‘Black box’ of car to be examined, blood sample reports awaited ADITI RAJA VADODARA, MARCH 15 THE VADODARA police will analysedetailsfromtheincident data recorder also known as a 'black box' of the Volkswagen Virtus car that a law student crashed into several people and two-wheelers, killing a woman and injuring several others, on Thursday, in the Karelibaug area of the city. Commissioner of Police Narasimha Komar, on Saturday saidthattheaccuseddriverof the car Rakshit Chaurasiya, a final year law student from MS University hails from Varanasi and is the son of a sanitary hardware trader who has been in Vadodara for four years. His co-passenger Praanshu Chauhan is a resident of Vadodara and the car belonged to his father. Addressingmediapersonsafter getting an two-day remand extension of Chaurasiya, Komar said that an "exhaustive investigation" into the activities the accused indulged in before the crash as well as his "behaviour and utterances" after the crash was on by bringing in technical experts. Experts of Regional Transport Office (RTO) will also join in the investigation to help analyse details of the "incident datarecorder"thatcouldprovide leadsto thereasonsforthecrash. Komarsaidthatphysical,scientific, forensic evidences from the spot of accident on the road, as well as the vehicles involved in the crash and CCTV footages arebeing"takencohesivelyinthe investigation". Komar said that while Chaurasiya, being the driver of the car has been booked for culpable homicide, Chauhan is a "suspect" as there is an "impression"thatthetwowereinthecar under the influence of an intoxicant. Komar said, "In the entire process, physical examination, a detailedlistof thingsintheirpos- The car that the accused crashed into several people and two-wheelers on Thursday. Bhupendra Rana sessionandthevehicleexaminationtocollectscientificevidences has been conducted... We have collectedtheirbloodsampleand it has been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar.If thereportscome outpositive,accordingly,therelevant sections will be invoked." He added, "The activity of (Chaurasiya's) entire day and if he had consumed any intoxication... his utterances, behaviour and context examination can be donebygoingbackintimetoascertain where they assembled, who they interacted with and whatactivitiesdidtheydobefore theaccident...PraanshuChauhan wasaco-passengeratthetimeof the accident, but we are investigating if there was any changeover during the journey. But the prime onus is on the driver and so we have only booked Chaurasiyafornow.If wefindany incriminating evidence, action will be taken." Komar added that the police had collected blood samples of a friendof theaccused,whohehad met at Gadheda market, from where Chauhan and he began their journey. Komar said, "Taking into account that the friend could also have a role to play, we have collected a blood sample of the friend... Whatever output comes, we will take furtheraction...Wehavealsobegun analysis of the speed and other estimation using the footage fromstrategicprivateandpublic cameraontheentireroute.Their mobile phones and GPS and other event data recorders in high end cars are also part of the investigation is on. RTO inspectors will also join the probe to analyse the incident data recorderthatispresentinthecar, which would record the braking speed, braking time and the sequence of the event to ascertain if there were any braking mechanism or other mechanical system issues." Komar said, "A Joint investigation by the technical and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad