DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Respecting Every Grain, Rewarding Every Effort 01101/13/0009/2526 With a historic rise, MSP now 150% of the cost ₹18 lakh crore given to farmers for wheat and paddy procurement at MSP in the last decade; 3 times compared to 2004-2014 First thaw in chill: Canada’s Carney calls PM, invites him to G7 Summit Look forward to our meeting, will work together with renewed vigour: Modi SHUBHAJIT ROY Carney’s call comes days before start of summit on June 15 NEW DELHI, JUNE 6 INAdiplomaticoutreachtowards mendingbilateraltiesafterayearand-half of acrimony and hostility, Canadian Prime Minister MarkCarneyFridayinvitedPrime MinisterNarendraModitotheG7 Summit on June 15-17. Following a phone call from Carney,Modi,inapostonX,said, “GladtoreceiveacallfromPrime Minister Mark J Carney of Canada. Congratulated him on his recent election victory and thankedhimfortheinvitationto the G7 Summit in Kananaskis later this month.” “As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour,guidedbymutualrespect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the Summit,” he said. Carney said, “I spoke with @NarendraModi today on the longstanding relationship between Canada and India, includ- A Vande Bharat train crosses the newly inaugurated Chenab rail bridge in J&K’s Reasi district, Friday. This is the first rail link between the Valley and Jammu region. PTI Opening key rail bridge to Valley, PM targets Pak: Pahalgam terror was also attack on J&K livelihood Chenab bridge is all-weather link from Udhampur to Baramulla Srinagar QazigundBaramulla (118 km) Baramulla Qazigund BanihalQazigund (18 km) Banihal Katra-Banihal (111 km) CHENAB BRIDGE Udhampur -Katra (25 km) ShriMataVaishno DeviKatra Udhampur E Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Tricolour on the Chenab bridge in Reasi district, Friday. PTI PAGE 6 as the country’s first cablestayed bridge of the Indian Railways over Anji Khad. The 272-km Udhampur-SrinagarBaramulla railway link (USBRL) Projectisdesignedtoprovideallweatherconnectivitybyeventually linking the Kashmir Valley CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Konkan Rly CMD S K Jha; (right) its ED L Prakash EXPLAINED KATRA, JUNE 6 GOVT & POLITICS PAK WRITES AGAIN, OFFERSTO RENEW IWT TALKS; INDIA NOT READY YET INSIDE PAGES 7, 15, 17 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Over last decade, India’s extreme poverty rate falls to 5.3% from 27.1% as World Bank raises the bar KIRAN PARASHAR AGGAM WALIA TWO DAYS after the stampede in Bengaluru which left 11 people dead, police on Friday arrested four people,includingthe marketing head of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the vice-president of the event management firm, DNA. The Karnataka government also removed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s political secretaryKGovindarajufromhispost, and replaced the Additional DirectorGeneralofPolice(ADGP) of state intelligence, Hemant M Nimbalkar. On Thursday, the Chief Minister had ordered the suspension of senior police offi- WITH THE WORLD Bank raising its threshold poverty line to $3 a day (daily consumption of less than $3) from the earlier $2.15 a day, theextremepoverty ratefor India declines sharply to 5.3 per cent in 2022-23 from 27.1 per cent in 2011-12. In absolute terms, people living in extreme poverty fell from 344.47 million to just 75.24 million, latest data from the World Bank shows. At$2.15dailyconsumption— the earlier poverty line based on 2017prices—theshareofIndians living in extreme poverty is 2.3 per cent, which is significantly lowerthan16.2percentin2011- NEW DELHI, JUNE 6 RCB marketing and revenue head Nikhil Sosale (in black) being taken to court after his arrest in Bengaluru, Friday. PTI cers, including City Police Commissioner B Dayananda. The stampede took place Wednesday afternoon when lakhs of people gathered to celebrate the RCB winning the IPL. A day later, police registered a case CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RBI surprises with 50 bps cut in key rate to boost growth CRR slashed by 100 bps for liquidity; interest rates on loans, deposits to fall Bengaluru stampede: RCB head of marketing among 4 arrested, CM’s political secretary sacked BENGALURU, JUNE 6 TRUMP-MUSK RELATIONSHIP FLAMES OUT PUBLICLY PAGE 12 STARLINK GETS SATCOM LICENCE FROM INDIA PAGE 13 NEW DELHI, JUNE 6 “INTHEbeginning,therewereno roads. We would go by foot, on mules and ponies, perch ourselves on a ledge and even camp on cliffs at night as we surveyed how we could build roads to move the equipment to the bridgesite.Iknew the Sahyadris. I was just a boy from Mysore and ● hereIwas,highon the Himalayas, so very different, terrifyingly high and so very alien.” The “boy from Mysore” is LPrakashwho,asChief Engineer of the Konkan Railways’ Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla RailLink(USBRL)project,wasresponsible for laying the roads. Now an Executive Director, he recalled the early days when CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE RINKU GHOSH ARUN SHARMA ACCUSING PAKISTAN of attacking“insaaniyatandKashmiriyat” bytargetingtouristsinPahalgam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that the intention of theattackwas“toengineercommunalclashesacrossthecountry anddeprivepeopleof Kashmirof their livelihood”. Modi was speaking after he flagged off two Vande Bharat trains between Katra and Srinagar and inaugurated the world’s highest railway arch bridge over the Chenab as well How it was done: ‘For 12 years, we ate, lived, breathed the Chenab’ ing deep people-to-people ties andsignificantcommerciallinks. Importantly, we agreed to continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns.” The invitation, less than 10 days before the Summit, is amajor breakthrough after the chill in ties. The two countries downgraded diplomatic ties after Justin Trudeau, the then Canadian Prime Minister, set off a political storm in 2023 when he alleged “potential” involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of a Canadabased Khalistan separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India rejected the charges as “absurd” and “motivated”. India has been invited to every G7 Summit since 2019. THE NEW POVERTY LINE AT $3 A DAY Povertyline(2021prices) Extreme LMIC* ($3/day) ($4.2/day) 2011-12 27.10% 57.70% 2022-23 5.30% 23.90% Povertyline(2017prices) Extreme LMIC* ($2.15/day) ($3.65/day) 16.20% 61.80% 2.30% 28.10% *Lower-middle-income category; Source: The World Bank 12,accordingtotheWorldBank’s estimates.Thenumberof people living below the $2.15-per-day poverty line is recorded at 33.66 million in 2022, down from 205.93 million in 2011. Despite the World Bank revisingitsextremepovertylineto adjustforglobalinflationin2021 prices, India seems to have fared well, with the poverty numbers holdinggood.At$3adaythreshold, India’s extreme poverty rate for 2022-23 rises from 2.3 per cent (at a poverty line of $2.15 a day) to 5.3 per cent, the World Bank estimates. Adjusting the earlier $2.15per-daylinefordomesticinflation CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra with Deputy Governors Poonam Gupta, M Rajeshwar Rao, T Rabi Sankar and Swaminathan Janakiraman in Mumbai, Friday. Amit Chakravarty HITESH VYAS MUMBAI, JUNE 6 THE RESERVE Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee delivered a frontloaded rate cut Fridaybycuttingthereporateby 50 basis points to 5.50 per cent in a move aimed at propelling economicgrowth.Alongsidethe steeper than expected rate cut, the RBI also announced a staggered reduction in the cash reserve ratio by 100 basis points, startingSeptember6,2025,tofacilitate faster monetary policy transmission. Borrowers,particularlythose with home loans, will benefit from the rate cut, with lending rates expected to decrease by 50 basis points immediately. However, depositors and savers canexpectlowerreturnsontheir bank deposits in the coming months as banks revise their deposit and savings bank rates. The 50 bps reduction in the policy repo rate, taken in a 5:1 majority,wasagainstthemarket consensus of a 25 bps cut and marks the third consecutive rate cut and a total reduction of 100 bps since February 2025. One basis point (bps) is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The reduction in the CRR — the percentage of a bank’s total deposits that it is required to maintain in liquid cash with the RBI as a reserve — would release primary liquidity of about Rs 2.5 lakh crore to the banking system by December 2025. The cut in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2