The Editorial Page: India’s next manufacturing leap will be about what it produces 10 SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPUR, ₹15 SRINAGAR) l www.indianexpress.com DA I LY F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A Happening today lTHE SECOND INDIA-ARAB Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will be held in New Delhi after a gap of 10 years. Aimed at boosting two-way engagement in the areas of economy, energy, education and culture, the meeting comes ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in February. lWORLD BANK PRESIDENT Ajay Banga will begin a five-day visit to Pakistan, during which he is scheduled to hold high-level meetings on the country's economy. The Indus Waters Treaty is also likely to be discussed. lIN AUSTRALIAN OPEN women's singles final, top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will take on fifth-seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPRESS.cOm GOYAL FLAGS 5-YEAR EU DEFENCE BUDGET OF EURO 800 BN AS AN OPPORTUNITY EU deal goes beyond trade... Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra can lift manufacturing: Goyal set to be Maharashtra E. Says technical know-how, investment to spur industry to build capacities Anil Sasi & P Vaidyanathan Iyer New Delhi, January 30 INDIA IS looking at ramping up itsmanufacturingwithtechnologyknow-howandinvestments fromEuropeancountriesthatgo well beyond just trade, said Union Commerce and Industry Orders free sanitary pads, separate toilets in all govt and private schools Ananthakrishnan G STATING THAT the right to menstrualhealthisapartofthe right to life, a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court on Friday directed all ‘Doorwaslocked fromoutside’: AfterBengal blaze,25families lookforanswers States and Union Territories to putinplaceMenstrualHygiene Management (MHM) measures, including gendersegregatedtoiletsandfreesanitarynapkins,inallgovernment as well as private schools. Issuing a slew of directions, the bench of Justices J B Pardi- PM Narendra Modi and EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa witness the exchange of MoU between Union Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday. ANI FULL TRANSCRIPT OF GOYAL’S INTERVIEW TOMORROW MinisterPiyushGoyal,afterhavingwrappedupthenegotiations foraFreeTradeAgreementwith wala and R Mahadevan asked the Centre, States and UTs to ensurecompliancewithinthree months.Citingprovisionsofthe Right to Education Act, the court also warned of stringent consequences for non-compliance,includingthede-recognition of private schools and holding state governments directly accountable for failures in public institutions. “In our considered view, the European Union. InaninterviewwithTheIndian Express, Goyal said, “The CONFIDENTGROUPchairman Roy Chiriankandath Joseph, popularlyknownasCJRoy,died after allegedly shooting himself at his Langford Road office in BengaluruonFriday.According to sources, Income Tax officials wereathisofficepremiseswhen the incident took place. The incident occurred in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 C J Roy was the chairman of Confident Group PAGE 9 the afternoon at the officecum-bungalow, with a senior police officer saying Roy allegedly used a pistol he had in his »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Srinagar, January 30 l where they study ALL THAT remains of what would have been the first batch of students of the Shri Mata VaishnoDeviInstituteofMedical Excellence in Katra, Jammu, is a WhatsApp group. The students who got selected for the now scrapped coursehadcreateditinthefirst heady days of their admission, IN GOVT MEDICAL 22 COLLEGES IN KASHMIR 7 each in Baramulla, Handwara GMCs; 8 in Anantnag 28 IN GOVT MEDICAL COLLEGES IN JAMMU 7 each in GMCs in Udhampur, Kathua, Rajouri and Doda business as Usual By EP UNNY NATION PAgE 8 ZUbEEN DEAtH: AccUSED SAYS SHE WAS toLD to SHArE HIS room andusedittostayintouchafter they were told abruptly that they would be redistributed across other colleges. The last day of taking admission to the new colleges assigned to them, spread across Jammu and Kashmir, was Thursday; since Friday, when the winter vacations got over, those in the Kashmir region too have started classes. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l AT MALAPPURAM GHATS, FESTIVAL ‘RE-ENACTING ALL RITUALS’ OBSERVED AT KUMBH MELA IN NORTH Blessed at Prayagraj, riding ‘Hindu revival’ push, ‘Kumbh Mela’ comes to Kerala Shaju Philip oftheMelafromtheNorth.The riverthatrunsnexttotheghats, Bharathapuzha, incidentally is known as ‘Dakshin Ganga’. BEFORE THE curtain rises on Tensofthousandshavebeen the Assembly elections in Ke- throngingtotheghatsforthe18rala, it is witnessing a debut: its dayMela,whichendsonFebruvery first “Kumbh Mela”. ary 3. Vedic chants echo round On the bathing the clock as devotees PAGE 1 ghats of the Nava take the holy dip. By Mukunda Temple at evening, the place is Thirunavaya in Malcrawling with safappuram district, where gener- fron-clad sadhus, including ations have offered prayers to priests from Kashi Vishwanath the souls of the dead, a festival Temple who conduct the isseeingarevivalasasurrogate »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Deputy Chief Minister Decision comes hours after NCP delegation met CM Fadnavis Alok Deshpande & Shubhangi Khapre Mumbai, January 30 AJIT PAWAR’S wife and Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar is set to succeed her late husband as Maharashtra Deputy Chief MinisteronSaturday,becoming thefirstwomantoholdthepost. Sunetra will be appointed the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Legislature Party leader at 2 pm and will be sworn in as DeputyCMlaterintheevening, sources in the party said. The decision came hours afterNCPbeganformalconsultations with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on filling the Deputy CM’s post, even as theBJPindicateditwouldleave the decision to its alliance partner while maintaining the existing balance within the ruling government. A delegation comprising Rajya Sabha MP and NCP working president Praful Patel, state party chief and Lok Sabha MP Sunil »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Their medical college shut down, Vaishno Devi students spread in 7 colleges, joined by WhatsApp Naveed Iqbal »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Process begins to return AI-171 crash victims’ personal effects to their next of kin PAgE 15 Kiran Parashar, Shaju Philip & Aanchal Magazine TWENTY-FIVE charred body partsandbonesareundergoing DNA tests to match samples collected from 27 people who say their relatives have been missing since a fire gutted two warehouses, including one belongingtoWowMomo,inNazirabad on the outskirts of Kolkata. As the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) undertakes the painstaking task, the site of the Republic Day blaze remains a scene of grim recovery. Fire services and disaster management teams have deployedcranesandgascuttersto sift through the debris, while distraught families continue to scourtheperimeterforanysign of life. With crowds swelling as desperation mounts, police have imposed BNS Section 163 to prevent large gatherings. The fire broke out in the earlyhoursofJanuary26atone of the two warehouses and quickly spread, killing at least 25. Three arrests have been made so far, including two employees of Wow Momo. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra fact is that this (the deal) is much more than just trade. It is A L L t H At ’ S L E f t b E H I N D Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, New Delhi, January 30 Kolkata, January 30 The EU trade deal offers an opportunity for Indian manufacturing to scale up and emerge as an alternative to China as a supplier for the 27-member European bloc . It is being seen as a win-win for both. ThE BIG PICTURE »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Income Tax team at his Bengaluru office, top Kerala realtor kills self Sweety Kumari & Tanusree Bose ExPlAINED Why India, EU see deal as win-win SC: Menstrual health is a part of fundamental right to life New Delhi, January 30 FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT ExPECTED TODAY Thirunavaya (Malappuram), January 30 anchor Priests from Kashi Vishwanath Temple perform Nila Aarti on the banks of Bharathapuzha in Kerala’s Malappuram district. SHAJU PHILIP Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar (right) with NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule at his funeral in Baramati, Thursday. PTI RELATED REPORT, PAGE 6 ‘What can we do?’: INDIA signals limited options amid NCP merger buzz Asad Rehman New Delhi, January 30 AMID A push for the reunificationoftheNationalistCongress Party (NCP) and speculation that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) faction may “join the government”followingthemerger, the other parties in the Opposition INDIA bloc have adopted a wait-and-watch approach. “What can we do?” asked a senior All India Congress Com- mittee (AICC) leader in Delhi. “The two factions and the (Pawar)familyhavetotakeacall. A senior member of the family hasdiedandwedon’twanttointerfere and make any overtures right now. We are watching the situationandwilldosomething as the situation develops.” The two NCP factions were set to announce their merger on February 8, before the untimely demise of Maharashtra »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2