DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY EC NOTE TO STATE CEOs DAY AFTER BIHAR DRIVE CHALLENGED Why hurry, wait for outcome in SC: Opp on EC move to revise rolls nationwide No consultation with parties before exercise, say Opposition leaders ASAD REHMAN AI-171 CRASH Pilot suicide insinuation reckless and unfounded, says ICPA NEW DELHI, JULY 13 ON THE day The Sunday Express reported that the Election Commission had directed Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all states to begin preparations for a Bihar-like Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, Opposition parties criticised the EC move and questioned the “hurry”foranationwideSIRwithout consulting political parties. The parties, from the Congress to TMC to Left, said Sunday that the EC should have waitedforthemattertoconclude intheSupremeCourtbeforegivingdirectionsforaBihar-likeSIR. Last Thursday, the Supreme Court, while hearing a clutch of petitions voicing concerns over the SIR in poll-bound Bihar, declined to restrain the EC from proceedingwiththeSIRbutsuggested that the poll panel also consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards for the purpose of updating the rolls. It said the EC could file a counter-affidavit by July 21 and the matter be listed for another hearing on July 28. The Sunday Express reported that on July 5, a day after a peti- During the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar’s Nawada district on Sunday. X/@CEOBihar tion was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the SIR in Bihar, the EC wrote to Chief Electoral Officers of all other states, directing them to begin preparations for a similar exer- THREE VICTIMS FILE PETITIONS AAIB released a preliminary report of its probe into the June 12 crash on Saturday Digital arrest scam: Consumer panel sends notices to banks, flags service ‘deficiencies’ SUKALP SHARMA Saysmayseekhelpof Centralagenciesif decidedthatcomplaints‘maintainable’ THEORIES HINTING at pilot actionorerrorfortheJune12crash of Air India flight AI 171 have infuriated pilot associations in the country. A day after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)releasedapreliminaryinvestigation report which stated that the Boeing 787-8 aircraft’s twoenginefuelcontrolswitches transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ position within a second of each other moments after takeoff,theIndianCommercialPilots Association (ICPA) on Sunday condemned the “reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide” in public discourse and sections of the media. The association, which representsthenarrow-bodyfleetpilots at Air India, said in a statement that such a suggestion, based on incomplete and preliminary information, is not just “reckless and unfounded” but also “irresponsible” and “deeply insensitive”. The ICPA is the second pilots’ association to raise serious concerns about the pilot action theories doing the rounds since the release of thepreliminaryreport of the investigation into the crash, the worst aviation RITU SARIN NEW DELHI, JULY 13 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, JULY 13 DIGITAL ARRESTS have reached thedoorstepof thenationalconsumer commission. For the first time, a clutch of bankshavereceivednoticesfrom theNationalConsumerDisputes Redressal Commission which has flagged that victims of digital arrest fraud have been subjectedto“deficienciesinservice.” Thepetitionsfiledbydigitalarrest victims were admitted in an orderdatedMarch3andonJuly7. An Indian Express report on the digital arrest scam on June 30 The banks’ replies were heard by the NCDRC bench that included the commission’s President, Justice (retired) AP Sahi, and member Bharatkumar Pandya. CM VISITS HOSPITAL, PROMISES ALL HELP Before setting herself on fire, Odisha student complained of harassment SUJIT BISOYI BHUBANESWAR, JULY 13 DAYS BEFORE she set herself on fire over alleged sexual harassment by her college professor, a student of a leading government college in Odisha’s Balasore had writtentotheinstituteauthorities that she was under mental stress and could take an extreme step. Thestudent,inhercomplaint on July 1, alleged that she was subjected to mental harassment by the accused, who also threatened to fail her in some subjects and make her repeat a year, it is learnt. She is learnt to have alleged that he had been harassinghereversincesherefusedhis demand for sexual favours. The accused, an assistant professor, has been arrested and suspended, and the state governmenthasalso suspended the college principal. As the Opposition BJD and Congress raised the heat on the ruling BJP, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi visited AIIMS Bhubaneswar, where the student is admitted, and promised all possible help. After writing to the institute authorities, the student had also approached the police, which in turn had asked the institute for a response. Balasore Superintendent of Police Raj Prasad said Saturday CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Human intel & some tech: How TN nabbed 3 terror accused after 30 yrs ARUN JANARDHANAN CHENNAI, JULY 13 ‘Any economic ideology benefitting the last man is priority. That’s why India could do away with absolute poverty’ RAM MADHAV BJP LEADER PAGE 13 FOR OVER a decade, the chilli commission agent named Shahjahan Shaik was just another familiar face in the APMC yard of Vijayapura, northern Karnataka. A quiet man with three children, he worked long hours, rented a modest house, and disappeared into the crowd when the market closed. What his co-traders didn’t Mohammed Ali Mansoor, Abubacker Siddique, Sadiq Ali know was that the man they greeted every day was Sadiq Ali — better known in the early 1990s as “Tailor”Raja, a frontline cadre of the banned extremist outfit Al-Ummah and a key accused in the 1998 Coimbatore CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The NCDRC bench has said thatitwouldconsiderseekingassistance of Central Government agencies like the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Home Ministry’s Indian Cyber CrimeCoordinationCentre(I4C) should it be decided that the complaintswere“maintainable” before the commission. The petitions of two Gurugram victims — who had lost Rs 10.30 crore and Rs 5.85 crore — in digital arrest scams last year were clubbed together for the NCDRC case; a third case CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CM Omar slams ‘Martyrs’ Day’ detentions, says he was under house arrest too ‘Unelected government locked up the elected government’ BASHAARAT MASOOD SRINAGAR, JULY 13 JAMMU AND Kashmir Chief MinisterOmarAbdullahclaimed that he was put under “house detention” Sunday, hours after several leaders made similar allegations, as the Valley observed its Martyrs’ Day. Until the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, July 13 was officially commemorated as Martyrs’ Day in Jammu and Kashmir and a public holiday was observed. In 2020, the administration dropped the day fromthelistof gazettedholidays. Soon after he returned from West Bengal, where he was on a tour promoting tourism to J&K, OmarpostedphotographsonXof police vehicles and paramilitary CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 New X factor in India’s fight against tuberculosis: AI-powered portable kit for early, fast detection PAGE 1 ANCHOR ANONNA DUTT PUDUCHERRY, JULY 13 AT THE Villianur Health and Wellness Centre in Puducherry, thefamilymemberof atuberculosis (TB) patient steps in for a quick X-ray. He gets in front of a plate,liftinghisnecklaceoverthe head to prevent disruption. A leadapron-cladtechnicianholds up a portable device that looks `7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 like an SLR camera with a black lens and clicks an image. Within minutes, the result is out — he is declared TB-free. Inthatshortspanof time,images of the chest X-ray showed up on the laptop at the TB screening desk where an AI tool, fedwithchestscandataof TBpatients,foundnowhitepatchesin his lungs. This hand-held, AI-enabled X-ray machine was recently added as a screening tool in the national TB programme. Such quick screening helps identify undiagnosedTBcaseswithinthe A technician uses an AI-enabled portable X-ray machine to screen a person for TB in Puducherry. Anonna Dutt patient’s family, enabling early treatment and preventing further transmission within the household andcommunity, particularly in remote areas. Atpresent,thereare473such hand-held devices in use across the country. The government is in the process of procuring another 1,500 to diagnose missing TB cases — undetected individuals who may be spreading the infection. The device is being used for screening vulnerable individuals — such as family members of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 cise — this time with January 1, 2026, as the qualifying date. The qualifying date mentionedintheletterindicatesthat while the nationwide exercise may start soon, a final timeline for the rest of the country is yet tobedecided—thoughtheaimis toincludeeveryonewhoturns18 years of age by January 1, 2026. Leaders from Opposition parties said Sunday that the EC should have waited for the outcome of the matter in the apex court before rolling out a similar exercise across the country. Amongotherconcernsraised byOppositionmemberswasthe “hurry” and lack of consultation with political parties before undertaking the exercise. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD ISRAELI STRIKE KILLS 6 GAZA CHILDREN COLLECTING WATER; MALFUNCTION: IDF LAVROV AND WANG YI DISCUSS UKRAINE WAR, RELATIONS WITH THE U.S. PAGE10 GST reforms: Home Minister set to open talks for consensus on rate rationalisation Contentious issues on table, require Central ministries and states on board LIZ MATHEW & AANCHAL MAGAZINE NEW DELHI, JULY 13 TO IMPART urgency to the process of overhauling the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to initiate discussions with all stakeholders — states as well as Central ministries — to build consensus and resolve contentious outstanding issues. Amongst the many proposals on the table, the one to do away with the 12 per cent slab has been hanging fire for long. This involves shifting some items to the lower 5 per cent slab, and some others to the higher 18 per cent slab. Though this would simplify the multiple rate structure, it is estimated to result in significant revenue losses of Rs 70,000-80,000 crore for the Centre and states combined, top sources said. “AnytweaksinGSTstructure rightnow,especiallywhenithas stabilisedaftereightyearsof rollout,arenotgoingtobeeasy.Alot of factorswillbeinconsideration, and revenue loss is a big factor. No state, whether Opposition or E E X P L A I NE D MONDAY, JULY 14, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES Union Home Minister Amit Shah Bringing political ● heft to table IT IS not the first time that Home Minister Amit Shah has held discussions on economic subjects. He was involved in the past in decisionmaking, especially in politically sensitive issues such as price rise and disinvestment. He brings political heft when building a broader consensus becomes an imperative. BJP,willaccepttheproposalseasily.Therefore,theHomeMinister plans to hold discussions with states beforehand,” the source told The Indian Express. The sources said that the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ex-Foreign Secy, 26/11 prosecutor among 4 nominated to Rajya Sabha VIKAS PATHAK, SADAF MODAK & SHAJU PHILIP NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 13 AFORMERForeignSecretary,the lawyer who prosecuted 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, the historian who wrote the official textbook on India’s medievalhistory during the Vajpayee government’s tenure, and a veteran BJP leader in Kerala who was a victim of political violence three Retired diplomat Harsh V Shringla, prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, BJP leader C Sadanandan Master, historian Meenakshi Jain decades ago. These are the people President Droupadi Murmu nominatedtotheRajyaSabhaon Sunday. Retired diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla, prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, historian CONTINUED ON PAGE 2