eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE With a little bit of AI on my side NEWDELHI,LATECITY JULY13,2025 What’s pushing Indians to ChatGPT and other AI tools for relationship advice and emotional support? 14+4PAGES,`7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, ` 15SRINAGAR) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT AI 171 FLIGHT LASTED 30 SECONDS BETWEEN LIFT-OFF AND CRASH Bothfuelswitches‘cutoff’beforecrash,one pilotheardsaying‘didn’tdoit’:Probereport Let’s wait for final report... these are technical things... will be immature to comment: Aviation Minister HOW AN AIRCRAFT’S ENGINE FUEL CONTROL SWITCHES WORK During the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar’s Siwan district on Saturday. X/@ECISVEEP THE FUEL control switches are used to start engines or shut them down on ground. EC NOTE TO STATE CEOs JULY 5 IN AIR, moving these switches Bihar case in SC, EC asks all states to prepare for intensive revision may be required only in event of engine failure or damage that would require shutting off fuel supply for flight safety. THE SWITCHES have a stop lock mechanism, which requires the pilots to lift the switch before changing position to either RUN or CUTOFF. The crash killed 241 on board, 19 on ground. File Fuel switches; those of the crashed AI flight. Probe report STOP LOCK MECHANISM RUN SUKALP SHARMA NEW DELHI, JULY 12 IN THE June 12 crash of Air India flight AI 171 in Ahmedabad, the Boeing 787-8 aircraft’s two enginefuelcontrolswitchestransitionedfrom‘RUN’to‘CUTOFF’position within a second of each other moments after lift-off, according to a preliminary report intotheinvestigationoftheworst aviation disaster in four decades involving an Indian airline. The report released postmidnight by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), an office attached with theMinistryof CivilAviationand tasked with probing accidents and serious incidents involving aircraft, also said that on the cockpitvoicerecorder,oneof the pilots can be heard asking the other why he cut off the fuel, to which the other pilot responded saying he did not. Clive Kunder was the co-pilot flying the aircraft while Sumeet Sabharwal was the pilot-in-command monitoring. Sabharwal had nearly 8,600 hours on the Boeing 787 under his belt, while Kunder had over CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Aim: To include everyone who turns 18 years of age by January 1, 2026 At a prayer meeting held for the crew members of the AI 171 flight at a church in Mumbai on Saturday. PTI CUTOFF Tale of the aircraft’s 2 fuel control Pilot error? Don’t jump switches, from lift-off to wreckage to conclusions, there are SUKALP SHARMA & ANIL SASI NEW DELHI, JULY 12 THE TWO most crucial aspects of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad the preliminary reportshedslightonarethemovementof thefuelcontrolswitches that allow and cut fuel to the aircraft engines, and what the two pilotsdiscussedinthefinal moments. The aircraft has two fuel control switches, one for each of the two engines. Moments after lift-off,boththeswitches transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ position within a second of each other. The two switches Woman alleges rape inside IIM-Calcutta hostel, student held TANUSREE BOSE KOLKATA, JULY 12 A SECOND-YEAR student of the IndianInstituteof ManagementCalcutta has been arrested after a woman alleged she was raped inside a hostel at the premier institute. The police have charged the accused under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including rape, and seized his clothes and phone for forensic examination. Four others have also been detained and are being questioned. The woman has alleged that Parmanand Toppaunwar, who hails from Karnataka, called her to the campus in Joka on Friday. Guarded brackets prevent accidental movement The accused being produced before a court in Kolkata on Saturday. Partha Paul She told police that she is a psychologist and the accused her client, and he had asked her to come to the campus for a counselling session. The two had met onsocialmedia,shewroteinher complaint. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE HONEYWELL FUEL SWITCHES WERE FLAGGED EARLIER NO IMPACT ON COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS PAGE 11 were found in the wreckage, and both were in the RUN position, the report said. After a few seconds in the CUTOFF position, the switches for both engines on thedoomedaircrafttransitioned from CUTOFF to RUN position — THE WORLD evidentlyanattemptbythepilots to recover thrust in the engines. But given the extremely low altitude of the aircraft, there wasn’t enoughtimefortheenginestorecover to a level that would have allowed them to climb to safety. Further, the report paraphrases only a part of the discussion between the pilots, with the transcript of the recording in the cockpitvoicerecorderyettobereleased.Itsays,oneofthepilotscan beheardaskingtheotherwhyhe cutoffthefuel,towhichtheother pilot responds saying he did not. The report does not say who said this to whom, and does not mention any other exchange between the pilots. It also does not mention whether the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 other questions: Experts SUKALP SHARMA NEW DELHI, JULY 12 THE PRELIMINARY report of the ongoing investigation into the June 12 crash of Air India flight AI 171 is far more detailed than what industry veterans and experts expected, and gives an indication of the direction the probe may be headed in. The 15-page report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau(AAIB),anofficeattached to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has zeroed in on the most probable primary cause of the accident—theenginesbeingstarved of fuel with the transitioning of Pilot Sumeet Sabharwal, co-pilot Clive Kunder the fuel control switches from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ position within a second of each other moments after lift-off. From the cockpit voice recorder data, the report notes that one of the pilots asked the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Another eviction drive in Assam, 3,300 families displaced in month EXPRESS NETWORK FEMALE CHEETAH BROUGHT TO KUNO FROM NAMIBIA DIES ‘VIKSIT KERALAM’ AS BJP PLANK, SHAH SOUNDS 2026 POLL BUGLE PAGES 5, 7 GOALPARA, JULY 12 ON SATURDAY, Rokibul Hussain (28) spent the morning sitting outside the house his father had built, in Bidyapara in Assam's Goalpara district, waiting with dreadforthebulldozerstoarrive. Twobulldozerseventuallymade their way towards his family's home, flatteningother houses in therowfirst,whiledozensof police and forest personnel stood guard. At around 11 am, a policewoman was sent to check if anyone was still inside Rokibul's house. After she gave the green signal,thebulldozertargetedthe walls — which had already been stripped bare of the tin roof — working rapidly until the house wascompletelyflattened.Itthen NEW DELHI, JULY 12 A DAY after a petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission’s (EC) controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, the poll panel wrote to Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all other states on July 5,directingthemtobeginpreparations for a similar exercise — this time with January 1, 2026, as the qualifying date, The Sunday Express has learned. The qualifying date mentionedintheletterindicatesthat while the nationwide exercise may start soon, a final timeline for the rest of the country is yet tobedecided—thoughtheaimis moved on to the next house while Rokibul watched on silently. In the state's fifth large-scale eviction drive within a month, the focus was on the Paikan Reserve Forest area in Goalpara district on Saturday. According to Goalpara Divisional Forest Officer Tejas Mariswamy, the drive sought to remove 1,080 familieswhohadencroachedon 140 hectares of forest land. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Have uploaded forms of 56% electors... ERO to take final call, says Bihar CEO SANTOSH SINGH TWO DAYS after the Supreme Court’s suggestion that the Election Commission include Aadhaar,rationcardandvoterID in the list of documents in its intensive revision in Bihar, state Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Singh Gunjiyal, 2007 batch IAS officer, spoke to The Indian Express. Excerpts: During the eviction drive in Goalpara Saturday. Sukrita Baruah toincludeeveryonewhoturns18 years of age by January 1, 2026. Since 2003 has been chosen for Bihar as “probative evidence of eligibility” —meaning voters on the electoral roll that year, when the last intensive revision was done, will be presumed Indian citizens unless proven otherwise—other states are also likely to use the year of their last intensive roll revision as the cutoff for presumption of citizenship for existing voters. For instance, Delhi's electoral roll was last intensively revised in 2008. In its instructions, the Commission—referringtoparagraph 10 of its order dated June 24, when it formally announced the SIR in Bihar and said detailed guidelines for the rest of the ‘EC legal team will look at suggestions of SC… will release app to speed up process’ PATNA, JULY 12 SUKRITA BARUAH GAZA TRUCE TALKS FALTERING OVER WITHDRAWAL TRUMP ANNOUNCES 30% TARIFFS AGAINST EU, MEXICO FROM AUG 1 PAGE 10 RITIKA CHOPRA The deadline is 13 days away. We found widespread confusion, anxiety among voters. How are you placed? People hardly have a measure of the work we had… from printing of enumeration forms to its distribution, our staff are working very hard. We have uploaded 56 per cent forms (4.39 cr) in the system and collected forms from 76 per cent (5.98 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW VINOD SINGH GUNJIYAL CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER, BIHAR WHAT WILL NOT COUNTINBIHAR AN EXPRESS SERIES PART 9 crore) of the total 7.89 crore existing electors. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Their way and a highway: In Ranthambore, work on to allow animals a free pass PAGE 1 ANCHOR DHEERAJ MISHRA BUNDI (RAJASTHAN), JULY 12 ONAnearly12-kmstretchof the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway that falls in the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve’s buffer zone lie five identicalmound-like structures. Standing between Bundi's Hardeoganj village and the Major Bridge on Mej river, these structures — 500 metres long and connected by the road — serve aunique purpose:toallow a safepassage for wildlife aswell as vehicles, without impeding either. Touted as India’s first largescale animal overpasses, these mounds are part of a key section of the ambitious 1,386-km-long Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Executed by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) under the National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) Bharatmala Pariyojana project, these overpasses will be opened to the public in five months,officialssaid.Apartfrom the five overpasses, the project includes a 1.2-km-long animal underpass. According to a senior official of L&T, while the initial project in 2020 did not factor in these structures, the NHAI eventually reviseditsplanbasedonsuggestions made by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The structures will be camouflaged with grass and shrubs, the seeds of which have already been sown, the official said. Other highlights include use of noise barriers on the boundary wall of the highway and Polyurethane (PU) mats — knownfortheirsound-dampening and noise-reducing proper- DELHI-MUMBAI EXPRESSWAY Five overpasses, each 500 metres long, and one underpass that’s 1.2 km long on a 11.63-km stretch of the expressway DELHI RAJASTHAN Indergarh GUJARAT Godhra Vadodara Mej River Ratlam MADHYA PRADESH MAHARASHTRA An animal overpass in Rajasthan’s Bundi district. NHAI MUMBAI ties — on the tunnel walls. “Constant noise from traffic can lead to disorientation, anxiety,andinterferencewithessentialanimalactivitiessuchasfeeding, mating and nesting…The boundary wall is four metres high,withanadditionaltwometres of noise barriers to prevent vehicular sounds from seeping out. The overpasses have been built in such a way that animals would not be able to tell the difference. This will help them go fromonesidetoanotherwithout hindrance,” he said. Given that the stretch ran through an eco-sensitive zone, officials said they encountered several challenges. One of these was to relocate a 765 kV hightension line passing through the animal underpass and wildlife sanctuary zone. “It was a sensitive task due to its location within a protected ecological area. The project runs through the buffer zone of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, Chambal Ghadiyal, and Papdi Forest Area. Multiple wildlife species, including bears and tigers, were encountered during constructionactivities.Itwasour responsibilityto ensure boththe CONTINUED ON PAGE 2