The Ideas Page: In time of distrust, Constitution’s promise of fraternity matters more than ever 11 MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2026 Journalism of Courage New DelhI, laTe CITy, 18 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 business as Usual By EP UNNY Over 20 lakh take NEET retest neGotiatorS in SWitZerland, trUMP WarnS iran ‘Can we turn over a new leaf?’: Vance, Ghalibaf lead talks Iran links progress to Lebanon, US focus on Tehran n-plan Happening today lUnited StateS trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer will arrive in Delhi to give final touches to the IndiaUS interim trade agreement. lPreSident droUPadi Murmu is scheduled to interact with members of Sahariya tribe and Cheetah trackers at Kuno National Park in MP. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com poLiTics PaGe 6 Pm leadS YoGa daY celebratioNS candidates enter a neeT re-examination centre in Thane, maharashtra, on sunday. DeePaK JoShI IAF to Central forces, all step in for smooth exams at over 5,400 centres express news Service New Delhi, June 21 amid HeigHtened security measures, the neet-Ug retest was conducted for over 20 lakh candidates Sunday, over a month afterit wascancelledon may 12 on the grounds of an alleged paper leak. the national testing agency (nta), in a statement, saidtheretest,apen-and-paper exam, was conducted at 5,440 centres nationwide, and 14 centres abroad, through a New Delhi, June 21 RUSSIaN aMbaSSaDoR To INDIa »ContinUed on PaGe 2 express news Service Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Jaipur, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, June 21 tHe re-examinatiOn for the national eligibility cum entrancetest(Undergraduate) was held across the country on Sunday, with those who took the test expressing a mix of anxiety and relief at the culmination of a tumultuous period following the cancellation of the exam held on may 3. On Sunday, the father of a medical aspirant appearing for theexaminmumbaiexpressed relief regarding the stricter security arrangements in place. “therearepolicepersonneldeployed on the campus. We are hopeful she will perform better this time and no hiccups will occur,” said retired postman »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Govt prepares to notify Western Ghats eco sensitive areas in at least three states nikhil Ghanekar & amitabh Sinha ‘We will never allow China to affect our ties with India, which remains a high priority in our foreign policy’ deniSaliPov “whole-of-government effort”, with the involvement of over 7 lakh officials including police and security personnel, and exam staff. Sources in the nta said changes were necessitated in the agency’s processes to ensure that preparation for the examwascompletedin37days, as opposed to the regular timeline of five to six months. One layer where changes wereintroducedwastransportation,wheretheindianairForce Some nervous, most relieved: For students and parents, end of an ordeal tWeLve yearS after it issued the first draft notification, the Centreisfinallyreadytofinalise and notify the demarcation of ecologically Sensitive areas (eSa) in the Western ghats region, at least in the three states in which contentious issues havemoreorlessbeenresolved, The Indian Express has learnt. Over 56,000 square km of land in six states are proposed l proposedesas Village-level Ecologically Sensitive Unit Gujarat Goa maharashtra Gujarat ESAs in Western Ghats region of Goa Maharashtra Maharashtra KaSTURIRaNGaN PaNel RePoRT tobedemarcatedaseSa,based on the 2013 recommendations of a high-level working group led by former iSrO chairman K Kasturirangan. the Centre’s original draft notification had come in 2014, and has undergone five revisions since then, but disagreements with the state governments on the areas earmarked for declaration as eSas within their jurisdictions have not been fully resolved. even now, the states of Kerala and »ContinUed on PaGe 2 PaGe 14 Andhra IT Minister Nara Lokesh is guest at Express Adda today express news Service Hyderabad, June 21 tHe andHra Pradesh government has been strongly pushing for global it companies to invest in the state, especially positioning visakhapatnam as an it hub. Leading the push is nara Lokesh, national Working President of the telugu desam Party (tdP), who is in his second stint as the state’s it minister. Lokesh will be the guest at Extradited for three cases 10 years ago, sent back to Hong Kong after acquittal Sadaf Modak Mumbai, June 21 ten yearS after he was extradited from Singapore to face trial in three criminal cases, india-born alleged gangster Kumar Krishna Pillai has been repatriated to his home country,HongKong,itislearnt. a mumbai sessions court hadonFebruary13directedpolice to send Pillai back to Hong TdP leader nara Lokesh the express adda in new delhi on monday. He will be in conversationwith vandita mishra, national Opinion editor, »ContinUed on PaGe 2 alleged gangster kumar Pillai Kong, noting that he could not be kept in india after being »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Us Vice President J d Vance with President donald Trump’s envoys steve Witkoff and Jared kushner; (right) Iran Foreign minister seyyed abbas araghchi with Parliament speaker mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf at the Qatari-owned mountaintop resort of Buergenstock in switzerland, sunday. aP & ReUTeRS aamer Madhani, Seung Min Kim & Jamey Keaten Obbuergen (Switzerland), June 21 US viCe President Jd vance said Sunday there was an opportunity to “turn over a new leaf” with iran as the sides held talks aimed at building out the interim deal to end the war in iran reached by the two sides last week. vance and US negotiators met with iran’s parliamentary speaker, mohammad Bagher ghalibaf, and Foreign minister E. expLained interim deal The interim deal between the US and Iran is meant to stop fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon. It also gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but that can be extended. abbas araghchi at a Swiss mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne. NSDC crackdown continues: Current, ex-staffers get notices for PMKVY ‘lapses’ ritu Sarin New Delhi, June 21 mOre tHan a year after it cut short the tenure of its CeO, and months after it filed a police complaintallegingthatsomeof its top officials indulged in “misappropriation” of funds, thenationalSkilldevelopment Corporation (nSdC) has cracked down on its own employees again. inthelatestmovethatpoint to systemic failures within the organisation, The Indian Express has learnt that nSdC, which implements Pradhan mantri Kaushal vikas yojana (PmKvy), has sent show cause notices to around 20 serving and former employees over alleged irregularities flagged by theComptroller&auditorgeneral (Cag) in the flagship skills training scheme. the show cause notices, sent earlier this month, lists several “charges” against each The Indian Express report on september 22 last year ofthestaffersunderscrutiny— including failure to match job role selection for candidates to marketdemand,verifyaccreditation and documents, or ensure aadhaar attendance. the notices warn that the cases will be referred to investigating agencies if financial misconduct and criminal culpability are detected. the nSdC implements PmKvy on behalf of the ministry of Skill development and entrepreneurship (mSde). PmKvy was launched in 2015 andhasimpartedskillstraining »ContinUed on PaGe 2 mediators from Pakistan andQatarwerealsointheroom for the direct engagement that, according to iranian state media, lasted about 80 minutes. the US and iranian negotiating teams also held separate private talks with Pakistani and Qatari officials. the US is looking to get iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear programme amid concerns it may be used for military purposes, which iran denies. vance also wants to push tehran to commit to »ContinUed on PaGe 2 7dead,9critical afterammonia leakatseafood exportunitintn arun Janardhanan Chennai, June 21 Seven migrant workers died and more than 40 were hospitalised after an ammonia gas leak at a private seafood exportunitnearPeriyapalayamin tiruvallur district of tamil nadu on Sunday, officials and police sources said. the leak occurred at St Peter’s Paul Seafoods exports PrivateLimitedatKannigaipair, near Periyapalayam, where about 120 migrant workers, mostly women labourers from assam,OdishaandJharkhand, were staying on the factory premises. the company had provided accommodation for theworkerswithinthecampus. Sunday was the unit’s weekly »ContinUed on PaGe 2 poLiTics PaGe 5 Nimbalkar to joiN ShiNde-led Shiv SeNa l LosT TheIr docUmenTs as TheIr VesseL came Under aTTack oFF oman coasT In earLY daYs oF WesT asIa conFLIcT 3 months after missile strike, 8 sailors still struggling — for identities, job papers Purnima Sah spending nearly 45 minutes aboard the burning vessel and then in the sea. WHeneigHtindianseafarers Hailingfromrajasthan,Hajumped into the waters off ryana, West Bengal, andhra Oman on the morning of Pradesh and Puducherry, the march 1, after a missile struck eight men reached mumbai on their oil tanker MV SkyLightin march 18 believing their ordeal the early days of the West asia was over. instead, they now conflict, they struggled to sur- findthemselves facing another vive. three months later, sur- nightmare — red tape and unvival remains the employment. paGe 1 central struggle of after vowing their lives. nevertoreturntothe Following the atsea, all of them now tack near Khasab port that want to sail again, saying they killed the vessel’s captain, as- have “no other option”. But all hish Kumar of Bihar, and left the work documents and ids anothercrewmembermissing, they had were destroyed or lost the eight sailors were rescued that day: passports, service recby the Omani military after ords in the form of Continuous Mumbai, June 21 anchor discharge Certificates (CdCs), Seafarers’ identity documents (Sids), educationalcertificates, vaccination records, aadhaar cards,voterids,andPancards. Back home, without identity abdur rahaman mondal, 27, from mirjapur village in West Bengal’s nadia, is a farmer’s son and the first in his family to work abroad. after spending two years pursuing a Ba course, he trained for six months at a marine institute in navimumbai.Heenteredshipping in 2024, completed two voyages, and joined Sky Light asan“ableseaman”inJanuary. “i lost everything in the fire The eight sailors srinu donkani, Pagalvan haridas, Bikram Ghosh, sunil Puniya, abdur rahaman mondal, kaushal sorout, Bhumesh and Pramod kumar Yadav. PURNIMa Sah — my passport, educational certificates and all other docu- ments. Back home, i also discovered that my name had been deleted from the voters’ list in the Special intensive revision (Sir),” he said. mondal has since applied for a fresh voter card, aadhaar andPancards,approachedthe panchayat for a birth certificate, and sought duplicate Class 10 and 12 certificates. But he still needs a passport, CdC, SidandyellowFevercertificate to sail again. He now farms with his father on about seven bighas, growing jute, paddy and seasonal vegetables, and is considering factory work in Pune, where his cousin lives. march 1 still returns in nightmares, he says. “But one bad experience cannot define my entire life,” he said. Global waters to village farms Bhumesh, 23, of Chhithroli villageinHaryana’smahendragarh, holds a Ba in english and is the sole earner for his ageing parents and sister. He trained for six months at a delhi instituteandtookcomputercourses before signing up as an “able seaman”. “Officials keep asking me to comelaterorsendmefromone departmenttoanother,”hesaid about his lost documents, adding that he has no soft copies eitherbecausehelosthisphone. according to him, there has been no communication since New Delhi he returned home with the recruitment and Placement Services Licence (rPSL) company, SKS Krishi marine Services, which hired and placed him on MVSkyLight,with“nocompensation” or “clarity on salary”. “i have returned to farming and occasionally drive trucks. i want to go back to sailing,” he said. First voyage, almost last Sunil Puniya, 26, of Bamna Kalanvillage inrajasthan,says he lost belongings worth over rs 2 lakh, including a laptop and phones, apart from his documentsonmarch1.Hesays »ContinUed on PaGe 2