The Ideas Page: From Panini to AI stack, Delhi is forging new structures, rewriting frameworks 11 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 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 NExT STEP PROSECUTION AND LEVY Of PENALTY I-T brings Rs14,601-cr undisclosed offshore investments to tax lCONGRESS WILL LAUNCH a nationwide outreach campaign against the India-US trade deal from Bhopal. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi will attend the event. lEUROPEAN COMMISSION President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv to mark four years since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. By some estimates, nearly 20 lakh soldiers are dead, wounded or missing on both sides in Europe’s worst conflict since WWII. Follows The Indian Express’s Panama, Paradise and Pandora Papers investigations into offshore tax havens Ritu Sarin TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPREss.COm Ranchi-Delhi airambulance withsevenon boardcrashes Shubham Tigga & Sukalp Sharma Ranchi, New Delhi, February 23 AN AIR ambulance flight from Ranchi to Delhi crashed on Monday evening in Jharkhand’s Chatra district, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said. The aircraft, a Beechcraft C90 (registration: VT-AJV) operated by charter flight operator Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, had seven people on board, including two pilots. Hazaribagh DIG Anjani Kumar Jha told TheIndianExpress that no deaths have been confirmed yet in the plane crash. “We cannot confirm it now. The incident has occurred, and we are looking into it. Nothing is final at this stage. No confirmation can be given yet,” he said on Monday night. He confirmed that seven people were on board the aircraft. “There were two pilots, one patient, two attendants, one doctor and one paramedic. Theaircraftwastravellingfrom »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ECONOmY PAgE 15 coUNTrIES ThAT PLAY gAMES wILL fAcE hIghEr TArIffS: TrUMP New Delhi, February 23 Rajaji bust in, Lutyens out President Droupadi Murmu with Vice President C P Radhakrishnan during a ceremony to unveil the bust of the first and only Indian Governor General of independent India, C Rajagopalachari, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Monday. The bust of Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, replaces that of British architect Edwin Lutyens. Rajagopalachari’s family members were also present on the occasion. ANI REPORT, PAGE 6 NCERT’s new Class 8 book lists ‘corruption in judiciary’, ‘massive backlog’ as challenges Abhinaya Harigovind New Delhi, February 23 THE NEW Social Science textbook for Class 8, released by the NationalCouncilofEducational ResearchandTraining(NCERT) on Monday, includes a section on “corruption in the judiciary” as part of a chapter on “The role of the judiciary in our society”. The chapter lists “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” and “massive backlog…on account of multiple reasons, such as a lack of an adequate number of judges, complicated legal procedures, and poor infrastructure” as among the “challenges” faced by the judicial system. The old textbook only describedthe roleof thejudiciary, what an independent judiciary is, the structure of the courts, and access to them, without Drama in Patna: Andhra cops arrive to arrest IG, denied transit remand Himanshu Harsh & Sreenivas Janyala »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Chandigarh, February 23 INVESTIGATORS IN Haryana probing the Rs 590-crore IDFC First Bank scam have brought under the scanner at least 391 suspect transactions over the past few months in over 170 accounts, key Haryana government departments, bank employees and four senior IAS officers, The Indian Express has learnt. According to sources, several accounts under scrutiny belongtobusinessmen,real-estate firms and realtors across Chandigarh and Haryana. Depositstotallingaround Rs 70 crore in these accounts have been frozen, and efforts to identify more such accounts are ongoing. The state government offices under investigation »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 to know Biharmeatban nearschoolsto preventviolent tendenciesin children:DyCM Patna, February 23 Outside the residence of Bihar IPS officer Sunil Kumar Naik in Patna on Monday. EXPRESS IDFC First Bank scam probe zooms in on 391 transactions, 170 accounts Varinder Bhatia & Sukhbir Siwach »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DISCLOSING COLLECTIVE figures regarding this for the first time, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said that Rs 14,601 crore worth offPANAmA PAPERs PARADIsE PAPERs PANDORA PAPERs shore assets investigated by (2016) (2017) (2021) The Indian Express have been “brought to tax”. Amount brought to tax Amount brought to tax Amount brought to tax The reply to an RTI by the ₹13,800 cr ₹115 cr ₹686 cr CBDTincludestheRs686crore Cases filed: 426 Cases filed: 494 Cases filed: 335 “brought to tax” following the Source: RTI replies publication of the Pandora Papers in 2021. The Panama Papers, Para- shore assets investigations, the tion and penalty according to disePapersandPandoraPapers RTIreplytoTheIndianExpress, Indian tax laws. These figures investigations, published in datedJanuary30,2026,nowdis- are, however, still not those for 2016, 2017 and 2021, respect- closes “the undisclosed invest- taxes finally collected by the ively, were done over several ments brought to tax” as well. CBDT after detection of offyears by The InThe“broughtto shore assets. dian Express, in tax” figures were AspertheCBDTreply,while YOuR RIGhT collaboration with derived after the Rs13,800crorewas“broughtto the International completion of as- tax” in the Panama Papers; the Consortium of Insessment of each figure was Rs 115 crore for the AN EXPRESS RTI vestigative Jourof the tax cases, Paradise Papers; and Rs 686 APPLICATION nalists (ICIJ) and dispatch of tax no- crore for the Pandora Papers. media partners tices to the assesEarlier RTI replies by the from across the world. sees,andreceiptoftheirreplies. CBDT showed that 1,255 tax While the CBDT had earlier Hence, it goes beyond a calcu- cases in all had been filed folprovided figures of the “undis- lation of what was undeclared, lowingthethreeglobaloffshore closed tax detected” via the off- and is a step towards prosecu»CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Himanshu Harsh Patna, Hyderabad, Feb 23 A PATNA court on Monday halted the arrest of a Biharcadre IG-rank IPS officer in connection with an alleged attempt to murder Andhra PradeshAssemblyDeputySpeaker Kanumuru Raghurama Krishna Raju after rejecting the AndhraPradeshPolice’stransit The section in NCERT’s Social Science textbook for Class 8 RELATED REPORT, PAGE 12 any mention of corruption. It did,however, havea paragraph that said an issue that affects the common person’s access to justice is the number of years that courts take to hear a case. “The phrase ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ is often used to characterisethisextendedtime period that courts take,” it said. The new book lists the approximate number of pending l ₹14,601cr‘bROuGhTTOTAx’ E. ExPlAINED System steps in Both IDFC First Bank and the RBI have emphasised that the fraud does not point to a systemic risk in an effort to calm nerves in the sector and financial markets. RELATED REPORT, PAGE 15 BIHAR DEPUTY Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha has said that the open sale of meat would not be permitted near educational institutions, religious places, or crowded public locations, citing concerns over “publichealth”and“socialharmony”, and to “prevent violent tendencies among children”. Sinha made the comments on Sunday while answering reporters’ questions on the Bihar government’s decision, announced last week, to ban open-air and unlicensed meat sales in urban areas. The RJD said the move was a reflection of the BJP working on“implementingitsagendain Bihar”. “With Chief Minister Nitish Kumar slowly getting weaker, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NATION PAgE 8 forMEr rAILwAY MINISTEr MUkUL roY dIES AT 71 l LAKSHMIPRIYA DEVI’S DEBUT MANIPURI FILM BOONG WINS BAFTA FOR BEST CHILDREN’S & FAMILY FILM Bringing Manipur to world stage: ‘Rooted in a place which is very troubled, ignored’ PAGE 1 Business as Usual anchor By EP UNNY Alaka Sahani Mumbai, February 23 THE TROUBLED state of Manipur is a world away from the glittering London stage of the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards, but, for a moment on Sunday night, it found itself in the spotlight when Boong, a Manipuri-language film, became the first Indian movie to win the Best Children’s & Boong director Lakshmipriya Devi with producers (from left) Alan McAlex, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani in London, Sunday. AP Family Film award. “(It’s) a film that’s not only rooted in a place which is very troubled, very much ignored and very unrepresented in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 New Delhi