McS/204/2020-22 rNI No. MAhENg 2002/21899 www.INDIANEXPrESS.coM The SociAl AnATomy of A chAiR From thrones to reclining chairs of Kerala, tracing the politics, history, subversion of the seat mumBai, may 3, 2026 screeN Director Anubhav Sinha on making of Assi and why confronting rape demands discomfort over easy answers LATE cITy 14 + 4 PAgES ₹6.00 D A I L y F r o M : A h M E D A b A D , c h A N D I g A r h , D E L h I , j A I P U r , K o L K A T A , L U c K N o w , M U M b A I , N A g P U r , AHigH-PoweredUSnuclear ‘executivemission’isheadedto india later this month with a two-pronged agenda: Taking stock of india’s nuclear energy landscape less than six months after a landmark legislation opened up this critical sector and to communicate the Americanindustry’sinterest,as well as coordinate US governmentmessaging,ontheemergent opportunities in this field. organised by the washington dC-based Nuclear energy institute, a lobby group of America’s commercial nuclear energy industry, and the US india Strategic Partnership Forum, the industry delegation’s visit is expected to have meetings with external Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Union Power Minister Manohar lal, besides likely meetings with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu E. explained Looking at future The SHANTI law aims to transform the country’s energy landscape. Private players will be allowed into operations and fuel management, accelerating capacity while breaking state monopoly. The focus on imported light water reactors and small modular reactors suggests a move towards next-generation technology that is simpler to finance and deploy. Naidu,MaharashtraChiefMinister devendra Fadnavis and gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. deliberations planned duringthecourseofthedelegation’s fivedayschedule(May17-21)include meetings with the »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 passengers on board the srinagar-Jammu Vande Bharat express, which commenced its regular service, at the Jammu Tawi railway station on saturday. The semi-high-speed train will cover a distance of around 272 km in 4 hours and 50 minutes. ANI Aboard first Srinagar-Jammu train: Soldier expecting child, family that skipped the road Naveed iqbal Srinagar, Jammu, May 2 JUSTBeFore8am,policemen stationed outside the Srinagar railway Station began whistlingforeveryonetorushin.For the first time, a Vande Bharat train connecting Srinagar to Jammu was about to pull into the platform. inside the station, a quick bag scan, an escalator to the othersideoftheplatformandin six minutes, the train was in view. The smiles widened, the phones came out, and a queue began to form. As passengers boarded the train to Jammu, someforthefirsttimeever,they were thrilled at the prospect of reaching their destination in less than five hours. whileJammuhasremained connected to railway networks across the country, the roughly 260-kilometre distance betweenSrinagarandJammuhas been marred by landslides and inclement weather. This train, as a result, has been a dream in the making for decades. while the Srinagar-Katra line has been functional since June 2025, passengers on the Vande Bharat to Jammu said thathavingtoboardordeboard an hour away from Jammu presented its own logistical challenges. “This is just wonderful,” gagan, a soldier on his way home to rohtak in Haryana, said on Saturday. “My wifeandiareexpectingourfirst child to arrive tomorrow, and with this train, i will be able to reach home tonight.” Posted in Kashmir for the last two years, he said he has taken multiple modes of transportwhenhehadtogohomeon »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 Top 500 companies’ profits grew 30% post Covid, but no investments: CEA 133 Points to new Chinese, US laws, warns of restrictive external environment 165 siddharth Upasani 105 New Delhi, May 2 76 people receive alerts on their phones in patna, saturday. PTI Happening Govt tests new system for real-time alerts on today lNatioNal testiNg Agency will conduct the NEET (Undergraduate) exam for medical courses from 2 pm to 5 pm, across 552 cities in India and 14 cities abroad. lMaldives PresideNt Mohamed Muizzu will start his state visit to Sri Lanka. Muizzu and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake are scheduled to sign several MoUs covering cooperation across multiple sectors. laNdaMaN aNd Nicobar Islands is set to attempt a world record for the 'tallest human stack underwater' in a bid to promote tourism. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com v A D o D A r A Poll results tomorrow, 1 Bengal seat to vote again Series of meetings being lined up in New Delhi and Mumbai anil sasi P U N E , rePolliNg across Falta oN May 21 Shanti law in, US nuclear ‘mission’ on its way to tap new tie-ups New Delhi, May 2 P A T N A , disasters, emergencies Unlike SMS, cell broadcast system uses one-to-many channel for alerts express News service New Delhi, May 2 THegoVerNMeNTonSaturday sent a test notification in the form of a text message with asharpbeepsoundtoalmostall citizens around 11:42 am, demonstrating its indigenously developed Cell Broadcast system for instant communication during critical situations such as natural disasters and man- made emergencies. A pop-up message flashed on mobile screens in english, Hindiandotherlanguageswith theheadline‘extremelySevere Alerts’.“india,launchesCell Broadcast using indigenous technology, for instant disaster alerting service for its citizens. Alert citizens, safe nation. No action is required by the public upon receipt of this message. This is a test message. – government of india,” it read. The department of Telecommunications (doT) said it is set to launch an advanced public alerting framework in coordinationwithkeyagencies includingtheNationaldisaster ManagementAuthority.Thisis »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 iNdiA’SToPeconomistonSaturday criticised the private sectoraskingittoreflectwhyithas been reluctant to invest, which initselfmighthavecontributed to demand uncertainty. Addressing the second annualisaacCentreforPublicPolicy growth Conference organ- ised by Ashoka University, Chief economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said, “Post Covid, if you look at BSe 500 or NSe 500 companies, corporate profits grew at 30.8% per annum. But still, our overall capital formation rates from the private sector have been disappointing.” The CeA also warned about a more restrictive external en- cea V anantha nageswaran. FILE Voters at a polling station in south 24 parganas district, where 15 booths of two assembly seats saw repolling saturday. PArThA PAUL SC declines TMC plea after EC flags circular on both Central, state staff for counting atri Mitra & ananthakrishnan g Kolkata, New Delhi, May 2 AS weST Bengal braced for the countingofvotesMondayinthe high-stakes battle between the ruling TMC and the opposition BJP for control of the state, the election Commission of india Saturday ordered repolling across all 285 polling stations in theFaltaAssemblyconstituency onMay21,andscheduledcounting of votes on May 24. maHarasHTra This means that on Monday, results will be declared for 293 of the 294 seats in the state Assembly. The eCi, in a release, said it was ordering fresh polls “in all the285pollingstations,including auxiliary polling stations” of Falta constituency after considering reports of “severe electoral offences and subversion of democratic process during pollinginalargenumberofpolling stations” on April 29. AlsoSaturday,repollingwas held in 15 booths of two Assembly constituencies in South 24 Parganas district. in New delhi, the Supreme Court declined to pass any further order on a Calcutta High Court order that upheld the election Commission’s decision to deploy Central governmentandPSUemployeesas »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 page 4 SBL BLaSt, two monthS on: the women StiLL fighting, the chiLdren Left Behind vironment and said india needed its own “answer” to Chinese and American laws that secure their supply chains and inward investments. He said global companies will find »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 65-year-old arrested Maharashtra HSC results: 89.79 pc for rape, murder of pass, dip for second year in a row 3-year-old in Pune dist Pallavi smart & soham shah Mumbai, Pune, May 2 Govt will seek capital punishment: CM express News service Pune, May 2 A65-yeAr-oldmanallegedly sexually assaulted and murdered a three-and-a-half-yearoldgirlinavillageinMaharashtra’s Pune district on Friday, sparking massive outrage. An angry mob blocked the Pune-SatarahighwayonFriday night, causing traffic jams, before senior police officers rushed to the spot to restore order. The highway was eventually cleared, and protesters calledforabandhintheareaon Saturday. Hundreds of people, »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 THe HigHer Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam results, declaredbytheMaharashtraState BoardofSecondaryandHigher Secondary education (MSBSHSe) on Saturday, recorded a pass percentage of 89.79, slipping for the second year in a row. This is the lowest passpercentagerecordedsince 2019, when the figure stood at 85.88. last year, the pass per- Pass PerceNtage over the years year % 2026 89.79 2025 91.88 2024 93.37 2023 91.25 2022 94.22 2021 99.63 2020 90.66 2019 85.88 centage was 91.88, recording a dip compared to 2024 when it was 93.37. After recording a pass percentage of 90.66 in 2020 when the exam was held just before the Covid-19 outbreak, the overall pass percentage of the state remained high with some fluctuations.Butsincelastyear, the overall pass percentage has seen a drop. »coNtiNUed oN Page 2 relaTed reporTs page 3 l pune conTracTor wins courT BaTTle for his money seized on decemBer 1, 2016 Rs 2 lakh to 0 to Rs 2 lakh: A demonetisation story ends on happy note after a decade ankita deshkar strengthenedhisfaithinjustice, butreinforcedthatitoftencomes toolate.“itshouldnottakethese THiS iS one demonetisation many years to get what is legally story that has a happy ending ours,”saysMalani. — though after a decade of on december 1, 2016, the waiting. then41-year-old,alongwithhis girishrameshchandraMa- sister Sonal Soni, was on his lani of Pune, who could not waytotherenukadeviTemple convert rs 2 lakh in old notes of in Mahur. He was carrying 400 rs 500 denomination as the notes of rs 500 denomination, money was seized part of his business page 1 on a charge that was funds that he later dismissed, is planned to deposit now set to get an in his Akola bank acequivalent amount in the new count before the december 30 currency. government deadline to exoriginally from Akola and change old currency. now based in Bibwewadi, Pune, Prime Minister Narendra thecivilengineerandcontractor Modi had announced demonsays the experience has etisation, in a sudden move, on Nagpur, May 2 anchor November 8 that year. “i was carrying cash from Amravati and going to Pusad to drop my sister, when she suggested that we visit the Mahur templethatwasnearby,”hesays. Theircarwasinterceptedby a police patrol team at the Keroli Naka check-post, put up as part of security for the ongoing nagar panchayat elections in Nanded district. “They checkedourvehicle,andfound the cash. i tried to explain that i was going to deposit the money for exchange before the demonetisation deadline. But they said it was election time and this amount of cash could not be carried, and seized it,” says Malani. Girish rameshchandra malani had missed the deadline to deposit the notes as it was seized by police in view of local polls in nanded He was summoned by income Tax officials to Nanded and asked to prove the source of the funds. Malani says he submittedhisbankstatements, audit papers, income Tax returnsandbusinessdocuments, which showed that the cash was from the legitimate infrastructure business he operated with his brother. Malani says he was “not very mature” at the time and subjected to many rounds of questioning. “it was the first timeihadfacedsomethinglike that, or been summoned by income Tax officers for an inquiry. it was stressful.” The officials were eventually convinced that there was no illegality, and income Tax authorities communicated to Malani by december 28, 2016, that no further action was required. Paperwork took another three days, says Malani, with the notes reaching him finally on december 31, 2016 — missing by exactly one day the deadline to exchange the demonetised currency. Malani says he approached the reserve Bank of india’s Nagpur office in January 2017, as well as sent formal emails, hoping for relief due to his exceptionalcircumstances.However, the rBi refused to entertain his request. “even they were correct at their end,” says Malani. “if they had made an exception for me, they would have had to do so for everyone.” in Malani’s case, the Central bank also cited the Specified Bank Notes (deposit of ConfiscatedNotes)rules,issuedbythe Union Ministry of Finance on May12,2017,arguingthatconfiscated demonetised notes could only be accepted if the seizing authorityhadrecordedtheserial numbers at the time of seizure and if court directions specifically mentioned those details. But, the Mahur police had not documented each note’s serial number, the rBi said. Malanidecidedtoapproach the Bombay High Court’s NagpurBench,andfiledawritpetition on September 25, 2017. His lawyer C N deshpande argued that Malani had been unfairly deprived of his right to deposit legal cash solely because authorities retained it beyond the deadline. »coNtiNUed oN Page 2