eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE ‘MY LIFE IS A SCHOOL’ AHMEDABAD,LATECITY MAY25,2025 Filmmaker Aparna Sen on why, despite OTT, she is still looking for a space to tell her stories 16+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA IF CENTRE, STATES A TEAM, NO GOAL IMPOSSIBLE: PM THE WORLD LeverageFTAs,remove obsoletelaws,PMtells statesinNITImeeting RUSSIA, UKRAINE SWAP PRISONERS OF WAR, HOURS AFTER STRIKE ON KYIV JAFAR PANAHI’S IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT WINS PALME D’OR PAGE 14 Govt ratifies 8.25% interest rate on EPF MONSOON HITS KERALA, EARLIEST SINCE 2009 for 2024-25 Clouds over Kerala’s Kovalam beach Saturday as the southwest monsoon hit the state eight days ahead of schedule. PTI PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI, MAY 24 THE GOVERNMENT has ratified the rate of interest on employees' provident fund at 8.25 per cent for FY25, enabling retirement fund body EPFO to deposit the annual interest accumulationinthepost-retirementfunds of over 7 crore subscribers. EPFO, on February 28, had decidedtoretaintheinterestrate of 8.25 per cent on employees’ providentfund(EPF)depositsfor thefinancialyear2024-25,equal to the rate provided in the preceding fiscal. The approved rate of interest for 2024-25 was sent for concurrence of the Ministry of Finance. “Ministry of Finance has given concurrence to 8.25 per cent rate of interest on the EPF for 2024-25 fiscal year and labour ministry sent a communication regarding this to the EPFO on Thursday,” a Labour Ministry official told PTI. Now the interest amount as per the rate ratified for FY25 will be credited into the accounts of over 7 crore subscribers of EPFO. The decision on interest rate was taken at the 237th meeting of the central board of trustees of the EPFO chaired by Union Minister for Labour & Employment Mansukh Mandaviya in New Delhi on February 28. Compared to many fixed-income instruments, EPF offers relatively higher and stable returns, ensuring steady growth on post-retirement savings. In February 2024, the EPFO had increased the interest rate marginally to 8.25 per cent for 2023-24, from 8.15 per cent in 2022-23. In March 2022, EPFO had lowered the interest on EPF for 2021-22 to an over four-decade low of 8.1 per cent, from 8.5 per centin2020-21.The8.10percent rate of interest on EPF for 202021wasthelowestsince1977-78, when it stood at 8 per cent. GUJARAT TRP ZONE FIRE: KIN OF VICTIMS AWAIT JUSTICE, RAJKOT FIRE SERVICE STAYS RUDDERLESS PAGE 8 FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT THIS IS the earliest onset of monsoon over Kerala since 2009, when it arrived May 23. Normally, the onset is by June 1. THE IMD saidthesouthwestmonsoon hasalsoadvanced into parts of Karnataka, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu. IN APRIL, IMD forecast above-normal rainfall this year, expected to be 105% of the Long Period Average of 880 mm. ALERT CONTINUES IN OPERATION SINDOOR PAUSE To dial down, Army works on plan to ‘rebalance’ troops, equipment at border Pak will pull back; India had not ramped up mobilisation but will ease earlier restrictions on leave and movement AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, MAY 24 A FORTNIGHT into the pause of militaryactioninthewakeof the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, aproposedplanfor“rebalancing of troops” is being discussed within the military to avoid any fresh escalation at the borders, The Indian Express has learned. This even as Operation Sindoor is on pause and all alerts remainattheirheightenedlevels. While Indian and Pak armies are focusing on multiple confidence-building measures, plans for de-escalating troops and equipment from the borders within the next fortnight are being considered. EXPRESS NETWORK DELEGATION TELLS JAPAN: INDIA UNITED ON OP SINDOOR P 2 Sources said Pakistan, which carried out major reinforcements of troops and equipment over the last few weeks, will also pull them back to pre-April locations. Incidentally,Indiahadnotorderedlarge-scalemobilisationor deployment of offensive formations over the last month. Limited equipment and corresponding troops, which had been moved from their permanent locations to operational ones, are now planning to go back to their regular locations. During Operation Sindoor, the density of troops along the borders had increased but that Modi: Operation Sindoor ‘not one-off initiative’, must modernise civil defence preparedness AGGAM WALIA & SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, MAY 24 PRIMEMINISTERNarendraModi Saturday said there is a need to increase the speed of development, and “if the Centre and states work together like Team India, no goal is impossible”. Addressing the 10th NITI AayogGoverningCouncil,which includes Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of states andUnionTerritoriesbesidesthe think tank’s members and its ViceChairperson,Modisaid,“We shouldfocusononegoal,tomake BharatViksitby2047.Weshould have the aim of making each stateViksit,eachcityViksit,each Nagar Palika Viksit and each village Viksit. If we work on these lines, we will not have to wait till 2047 to become Viksit Bharat.” At a press briefing later in the evening, BVR Subrahmanyam, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MORE REPORTS PAGE 10 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu and Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin during the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting in New Delhi. PTI Stalin, Revanth focus on cooperative federalism; 3 Opp CMs stay away EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE CHENNAI,HYDERABAD,SHIMLA, CHANDIGARH, RANCHI, MAY 24 FROMTAMILNaduandTelangana in the south to Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in the north, chief ministers of OppositionruledstatesSaturdayusedtheNiti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to draw theCentre’sattentiontotheirde- mands. Three of the nine Opposition CMs — West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee,Kerala’sPinarayiVijayan and Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah — stayed away from Saturday’s Governing Council meeting. Duringhispresentation,Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin highlighted his state’s developmental strides while raising concerns over the Centre’s fiscal policies. Both he CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Shubman Gill picked BNP WANTS ROADMAP FOR DECEMBER POLLS Kutch health worker Dhaka churn: Army for polls, Yunus arrested for ‘spying’ as India’s new Test threatens to quit, signals he’s ‘staying’ for Pak intelligence captain, his village Need elected govt…we must return to barracks: Bangla General on border celebrates SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MAY 24 MIHIR VASAVDA & NITIN SHARMA MUHAMMAD YUNUS will remainasheadof Bangladesh'sinterim government, an adviser in his cabinet said Saturday, two days after a key ally said he had threatened resignation. “He(Yunus)didn’tsayhewill MUMBAI, FAZILKA, MAY 24 SHUBMAN GILL has been picked toleadIndia’sTestteamintoanew era, steering through a transition phase following the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, starting with the five-match series in England from June 20. At 25 years, Gill is India's youngest Test captain since Sachin Tendulkar, who was 23 whenhehelmedtheteam—and the fifth youngest ever, after Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (21), Kapil Dev (24), Ravi Shastri (also 25, but 55 days younger), and Tendulkar. While Jasprit Bumrah (31) has played the role of stand-in captain in the past, the selectors did not hand him the reins for the long term, citing “workload management”. Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar confirmed on Saturday that Bumrah would not play all five Test matches in England. At 25, Gill is India’s fifth youngest Test captain. PTI MORE REPORTS PAGE 16 With Ravichandran Ashwin hanging up his boots after the thirdTestof theBorder-Gavaskar series in Australia last year, fast bowler Mohammed Shami ignored because of fitness CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Muhammad Yunus; General Waker-Uz-Zaman leave. He said that while we face many obstacles in carrying out theworkandresponsibilitiesassigned to us, we are overcoming them…He (Yunus) is definitely staying,” Planning Adviser WahiduddinMahmudsaidafter ameetingof theadvisorycouncil. He said none of the advisers were going anywhere as “the CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 Adani to Ambani: Sibal gets India Inc to pay `50 cr for lawyers’ health cover New SC Bar president wants it scrapped or renegotiated ANANTHAKRISHNAN G & MANOJ CG NEW DELHI, MAY 24 SENIOR ADVOCATE Kapil Sibal, formerpresidentof theSupreme Court Bar Association, who has raised Rs 50 crore from a few big industrialists to fund a group medical insurance policy for the Bar’smembers,hasmetwithop- position from a section within the association. “As the new SCBA president, my first endeavour will be to discuss this policy in the Executive Committee meeting... My personalviewisthatthispolicydefinitelyneedstoberenegotiatedor scrapped, because the premium that we are paying for a Rs 2 lakh cover is highly disproportionate to the premium that we pay for a Rs 5 lakh cover,” Senior Advocate VikasSingh,whowaselectedthe newpresidentoftheBarbodylast week, told The Indian Express. At a General Body Meeting of the SCBA on May 5, Singh had expressed his opposition. To a question on whether Sibal’s endeavour raised issues of conflict of interest, Singh said it depends on whether these are CSR funds. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BRENDAN DABHI AHMEDABAD, MAY 24 THE GUJARAT Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday arrested a 28-year-old health worker from the border district of Kutch, alleging his involvement in espionage activities on behalf of a Pakistani intelligence officer. The case marks the third such arrest from Gujarat for alleged spying in the past eight months. The accused, Sahdevsinh Deepubha Gohil, a contractual multipurpose health worker (MPH) posted at the Mata-naMadh Primary Health Centre, was arrested for allegedly transmitting sensitive photographs and videos concerning the Border Security Force (BSF) and Indian Navy to an operative he knew only as “Aditi Bharadwaj”. According to ATS officials, Gohil came into contact with Bharadwaj via WhatsApp in mid-2023. In a press briefing Saturday, ATS officials said Bharadwajidentifiedherselfasan agentofthePakistaniintelligence services and instructed Gohil to The accused, Sahdevsinh Deepubha Gohil, was posted at a Primary Health Centre supplyimageryofsecurityinstallations — some still under construction, others newly completed—belongingtotheBSFand Navy in the Kutch region. By early 2025, Gohil had reportedlyacquiredanewSIMcard using his Aadhaar identification and activated WhatsApp on the device, which he then passed along to Bharadwaj. ATS officials said he continued to send her classified material via that CONTINUEDONPAGE2 General no longer so general: 36 hours on board an Amrit Bharat train Seats with air-spring suspension to vacuum toilets and LED display — The Indian Express boards an Amrit Bharat, one of 50 upgraded express trains for migrant routes PAGE 1 ANCHOR DHEERAJ MISHRA SAHARSA TO MUMBAI, MAY 24 SANJAY KUMAR, 38, puts train travel in perspective — no romanceof therails,justpurestrategy. “Agar aap dabdaba nahi dikhaiyega toh baithane ko bhi nahi milega (If you don't show yourmight,youwon'tevengeta place to sit). This is the reality of thegeneralclasscompartment.” Sitting by an open window, legs folded, he says, “This time, I am lucky. I usually don’t get the window seat… I don’t even get to sit.” Sanjay, a mechanic from Gopalganj in Bihar, is on board the Saharsa-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Amrit Bharat, one of a series of 50 affordable express trains for general- and sleeperclasspassengersthatthegovernment plans to run on routes that see high movement of migrant workers. While the Saharsa-Mumbai trainisthethirdAmritBharatexpress (after Darbhanga-Delhi and Malda-Bengaluru), it is the AMRIT BHARAT 2.0: WHAT’S NEW The train has 11 general coaches and 8 reserved sleeper coaches for passengers. Ashutosh Kumar Pandey ■ Charging sockets with multiple ports ■ Emergency talk-back unit ■ Radium-illuminated flooring strips ■ LED displays with realtime info on train speed, next station ■ Toilets with vacuum evacuation, odour control ■ Electro-pneumatic assisted brake system first in the Amrit Bharat 2.0 series — non-AC trains with upgraded facilities, which, the government says, will “provide affordable service and highquality travelling experience for people in the lower-income and lower-middle-incomecategory”. The trains are part of the Railways’ larger Amrit Bharat project to modernise trains and railway stations. On May 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 103 Amrit Bharat railway stations through video conference. With 11 general coaches, eight reserved sleeper coaches, two second-class luggage-cumguard coaches, and one pantry car, the Amrit Bharat trains promisetorevolutionisetheway much of India travels. Kumar, who is on his way to Mumbai for an interview that he hopes will land him a job in the Middle East, says, “For AC class passengers, travelling can be a leisure activity. You can sit by the window and watch the passing landscape, but for us, most of the time, we barely get to move or look outside — the whole coach issojam-packed.Peopleoftenask howwemanagetotravelinsuch CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 Ahmedabad