DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 First show of unity after LS polls, Rahul to host Opp dinner meet on August 7 AFTER OP SINDOOR Army overhaul: Drones to be in action at battalion level Bihar SIR, V-P polls on agenda; INDIA bloc to hold march to EC on August 8 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, AUGUST 3 Plan gains pace — from integrated brigades to light commando battalions GOVT & POLITICS BIHAR S.I.R SPARKS CONCERN IN TAMIL NADU, EC SAYS ‘ABSURD’ TO LINK EC TAKES ACTION AS ERRORS FLAGGED IN ADDRESSES, NAMES OF RELATIVES PAGE 5 The top leaders of the coalition had last met for a structured meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s home in New Delhi a day after the Lok Sabha election results. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Letter from Delhi Police refers to Bangla as ‘Bangladeshi language’, TMC demands apology EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, AUGUST 3 A LETTER from Delhi Police to Banga Bhawan in New Delhi's Chanakyapuri, in which Bangla is referred to as “Bangladeshi language”, triggered a political row on Sunday with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal calling it a deliberate attempt to strip a constitutionally recognised Indian language of its identity and demanding an apology. As Chief Minister Mamata BanerjeetargetedtheCentre,the BJPhitback,accusingtheTMCof shieldingillegalBangladeshiset- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY tlers. This comes amid allegationsof harassmentfacedbymigrant workers from Bengal in BJP-ruled states on suspicion of being Bangladeshis — an issue highlightedbytheChief Minister at her recent rallies. The letter datedJuly24,written by Inspector Amit Dutt from Lodhi Colony Police Station to Officer-in-charge of Banga Bhawan, requested for a translator to decipher documents seized from suspected Bangladeshi nationals. It said thatpoliceneededaninterpreter “proficient in Bangladeshi nationallanguage”totranslatedocumentsforacaseinvolvingeight persons “strongly suspected to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 3 POLITICS CONGRESS & THE OBCs PAGE 12 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 3 PM, SHAH SEPARATELY CALL ON PRESIDENT Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday. Later, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also called on the President. REPORT,PAGE5 Army officer assaults 4 SpiceJet staff in Srinagar, one has spinal fracture Staff flagged excess baggage; Lt Col claims he was harassed BASHAARAT MASOOD & AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA SRINAGAR, NEW DELHI, AUG 3 AN ARMY officer has been booked for allegedly assaulting four members of SpiceJet’s staff atSrinagarInternationalAirport. The airline’s staff were allegedly thrashed after they asked the officer, Ritesh Kumar Singh, who was flying out of Srinagar,topayforextraluggage. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Victims want to hear an honest admission of government’s responsibility… Nehru is not to blame for Pahalgam’ GAURAV GOGOI A videograb of the incident at the Srinagar airport “THE TRUMP Card is Coming. Enter your information below to be notified the moment access opens,” says the new US government website on the Gold Card, the $5 million US residency visa programme announced by President Donald Trump in February. Despite curiosity around the new programme, the launch dateandspecificdetailsof which areyettobereleased,datashows that the existing investmentbased residency programme DY LEADER OF CONGRESS IN LS PAGE 13 THE INDIAN Army is set to undergo a significant organisational overhaul that will include integrating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and counterUAV as standard weapon systemsatthebattalionlevelacross most of its arms, The Indian Express has learnt. The transformation will also involve establishing light commando battalions, creating integrated brigades, and developing specialisedartilleryregimentsand batteries tailored for future warfare,sourcestoldthisnewspaper. These plans, under discussion for several months, have gained pace after Operation Sindoor in May, following the Pahalgam terror attack. Some of the changes will be drawn from lessons obtained during this operation, the sources said. One of the initiatives is to incorporate UAVs and counterUAV systems into infantry battalions, as well as armoured and artillery regiments. While current battalions possess drones, theyareoftenutilisedassecondary systems in addition to estab- E ● Lessons from May OP SINDOOR in May revealed the increased use of military drones in new-age operations. Inducting a variety of drones as standard weapons at battalion levels will enable better training, procurement and maintenance. lished weapons and tasks. As a result, personnel are diverted from primary responsibilities to operate the UAVs. The new objective is to create a dedicated outfit within each unit that will be tasked primarily with operating drones. Each arm has been directed to draw up a structure that allows a select number of personnel to focus and train on this front, the sources said. In the infantry, for instance, plansareunderwaytointroduce several surveillance drones at the platoon and company levels. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 STATE EDUCATION RETHINK Reservation, 3rd language Hindi: Maharashtra govt rolls back 7 key decisions in six months THE WORLD CLASHES IN SYRIA AS GOVT STRUGGLES TO EASE TENSIONS SIX DIE OF HUNGER IN GAZA, FUEL TRUCKS REACH BORDER P 10 ‘Adjustments’ based on feedback: Minister; experts blame lack of consultation PALLAVI SMART Maharashtra School Education Minister Dada Bhuse MUMBAI, AUGUST 3 FROMQUOTASbasedonincome and caste to Hindi as third language; caste on exam hall ticketstosweetdishinschoolmeals; and even blank pages in textbooks to reduce the weight of school bags. These are some of the seven key decisions taken in the edu- cation sector by the BJP-led state governmentinMaharashtrathat wererolledbackoverthepastsix months, triggering criticism from experts that they were im- plemented“withoutthought”or “adequate consultation”. Six of these decisions were rolled back following a backlash from stakeholders, including the parentsofstudents—forinstance, the centralised uniform policy drew criticism for poor quality and delayed availability. In one case, the rollback came after the Bombay High Court granted interim relief to minority trust-run juniorcollegesthatwereaskedto Amid curbs on H1B and student visas, more Indians are lining up for US investment visas DIVYA A EXPLAINED AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi EXPLAINED INTHEIRfirstshowof unitysince theLokSabhaelectionslastyear, leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc parties will gather for a dinnermeetingonAugust7.Hosted by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, they plan to chalk out a joint strategy on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and discuss fielding a joint candidate for the VicePresidentialelectionsscheduled for September 9. The dinner will be followed byaprotestmarchtotheElection Commission’s(EC)officeinNew Delhi the following day. The INDIA bloc parties plan to demonstrate against the Election Commission’s ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar that they allege could allow the manipulation of electoralrollsandwhich,accordingtothem,bypassestheconstitutional role of the poll panel. TheCongresshasbeenfacing flak from several INDIA bloc leaders for not taking the initiativetokeepthealliancetogether. EB-5 VISAS FOR INDIAN NATIONALS 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024** 2025* 211 ■ Total EB-5 760 613 815 649 EB-5, which the Gold Card will replace, has seen more applications from India over the past one year than ever before. According to the American visas (India) 1,381 1,428 *2025 (YTD to Feb), Counsellor Processing only ** 2024 (CP+AOS) Source: IIUSA, Washington Immigrant Investor Alliance (AIIA), a Washington-based collective of EB-5 investors, demand for EB-5 from Indian citizens has grown sharply since April 2024, driven by factors suchasstrictercontrolsoverstudent and temporary work visas under the Trump regime. Data provided by United States Immigration Fund (USIF), which runs designated EB-5 regional centres in the US, confirms this. “In the first four months of FY2025 (October 2024-January 2025), Indian applicants filed morethan1,200I-526Epetitions across reserved categories — more than any prior full year,” Nicholas Mastroianni III, president and CMO of USIF, told The Indian Express, referring to the application forms. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 implement social reservation. Of these rollbacks, six came under the School Education Ministry currently headed by Dada Bhuse who took over last December from Deepak Kesarkar (August 2022 to November 2024) — both belong to Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. The other key U-turn involved 10% EWS (Economically WeakerSection)quotainprivate CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK Intervention by Indian team helped fix key issue before Axiom-4 launch: ISRO chief ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, AUGUST 3 SURVEY PROPOSES STEPS TO PREVENT ELEPHANT DEATHS ON RAIL TRACKS KOLKATA MAN FOUND DEAD, HIS FAMILY SAYS HE FEARED DEPORTATION 6 CHILDREN AMONG 11 KILLED AS SUV FALLS INTO CANAL IN UP’S GONDA PAGES 7, 6 WEEKSBEFOREitfinallytookoff, theAxiom-4mission,whichcarried Group Captain Shubhanshu Shuklaandthreeotherastronauts totheInternationalSpaceStation (ISS), was nearly cleared for launchdespiteaperceivedminor oxygenleak—untilanISROteam insistedonfurtherchecksthatrevealed a potentially dangerous crack in the rocket, ISRO ChairpersonDrVNarayanantold The Indian Express. TheAxiom-4missiontookoff for space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25 after a series of delays since theinitiallaunchdateof May29. ‘Mission was key step for ISRO human spaceflight programme’ Thefirstlaunchwasdeferred to June 8 due to an electrical issue in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft — the module where the crew was seated. But on June 8, when the engines were testfired on ground, an oxygen leak was observed in addition to an anomaly in one of the actuators, used in controlling the direction of the rocket's thrust. Dr Narayanan told The Indian Express that the oxygen leak was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 First AI-powered anganwadi: A rural classroom bridges digital gap PAGE 1 ANCHOR ANKITA DESHKAR NAGPUR, AUGUST 3 MEHER PACHE, 4, can identify a crocodile in a virtual jungle in a jiffy, while Aarzoo Prajapati, 3, can draw balloons on the interactive smart board with a flourish that stuns adults. A quiet learning revolution has been taking place since the past three months at India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered anganwadi in a village in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district, located around 18 km from the city. Not just their learning, even the number of students aged 26yearsattendingtheanganwadi in Waddhamna village regularly has gone up from 10 children earlier to over 25 at present. SinceJuly,insteadofbeinglimited to chalks and slates, the childreninthisanganwadihavebeen learning poems, songs and foundationalconceptswiththehelpof virtualreality(VR)headsetsfrom Meta (formerly Facebook for Business), AI-enabled interactive smartboards,tabletsandotherinteractive digital content. This step to redefine early childhood education was taken bytheNagpurZillaParishad,under its pioneering Mission Bal Bharari initiative, which aims to givechildrenfromruralareasthe same digital access as their urban counterparts. Inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on July 27, the project was launched at a cost of nearly Rs 9.5 lakh from the Zilla Parishad’s CESS fund. Of the district’s 2,202 anganwadis, including five in the village, the one led by Saroj Kukde, an anganwadi worker at Waddhamna for 14 years, was chosen as the pilot model. The Waddhamna village anganwadi is equipped with VR headsets, AI-enabled dashboards and tablets. Ankita Deshkar Vinayak Mahamuni, a 2021batch IAS officer and the Nagpur Zilla Parishad CEO, says, “We chose this particular anganwadi because of its accessibility, the sevika’s (Kukde’s) enthusiasm and its proximity to other centres for training visits. It also offers a secure environment for safeguarding the equipment.” To ensure transparency, the anganwadi was retrofitted with Wi-Fi-enabled CCTV cameras that can be accessed by key stakeholders, including Mahamuni, his deputy and the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO). ThoughtheZillaParishadini- tially faced challenges in finding the right tech partner for the mission, Mahamuni says they eventually roped in Qolaba, a firm working under the Centre’s IndiaAI programme. Stating that the anganwadi was refurbished recently to both meet the new technological requirements and attract more children,Mahamunisays,“These frontline educators (anganwadi workers) were trained to navigate this new world of smart learning to ensure that children even from the remotest of areas getachancetolearninanengaging and modern environment.” Awarethatanganwadiwork- ers already juggle multiple roles —fromcookingmealstokeeping records—Qolabastructuredtheir training programme as a threemonthmoduletoensuretheydid not get overwhelmed. Over the pasttwomonths,ateamfromthe company started working on a user-friendly system built on the anganwadi workers’ familiarity with smartphones. Trained by Qolaba, Kukde uses 10 VR sets and the interactive smart board for around one hour each day to teach the students, who spend five hours at the anganwadi (from 9.30 am to 2.30 pm) six days a week. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2