The Editorial Page: Census is about who we are. It cannot ignore migration, caste 10 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES ₹5.00 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 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 RUSSIAN PRESIDENT ON STATE vISIT, FIRST SINCE START OF UKRAINE WAR 05/12/2025 121 149 185 91 Happening today lRESERvE BANK OF INDIA Governor Sanjay Malhotra will announce the Monetary Policy Committee’s interest rate decision at 10 am. With the MPC having last cut the repo rate in June, economists expect another rate cut today amid record low inflation and growth potentially weakening in the near future. Malhotra and his Deputy Governors will also hold a press conference at 12 noon. lTHE DRAW FOR THE men's FIFA World Cup 2026 will take place at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. US President Donald Trump, who will attend the event, is expected to be awarded the new peace prize instituted by football's governing body. The 48-team tournament — expanded from 32 teams — will be the biggest in the competition’s history. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON WWW.INDIANExPRESS.COM BombayHC grantsbailto professorHany BabuinElgaar Parishadcase Omkar Gokhale Mumbai, December 4 THE BOMBAY High Court Thursday granted bail to formerDelhiUniversityassociate professor Hany Babu, accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, on the ground of prolonged incarceration of over five years without trial. A division bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Ranjitsinha R Bhonsale on October 3 concluded the hearing and reserved its verdict, which was pronouncedonThursday.Itdirected Babu’s release on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh along with sureties of the same amount. WhiletheNationalInvestigation Agency (NIA) sought a stay ontheoperationofthebailorder so as to appeal before the SupremeCourt,theHCrefusedthe request, stating that Babu has been in jail for over five years. “We are extremely happy to hear thenewsofthebailandyet we also feel a sense of great loss for all that we have endured all these years in spite the fact that HanyBabuhasbeentotallyinnocent andhisonlyfaultisbeing a socially responsible person »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Modi-Putin talks today: Strategic economic 2030 roadmap likely On table: Defence ware, manpower pact, Eurasian Economic Union FTA, Arctic shipbuilding Passengers at the IndiGo counter at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai on Thursday. SANKHADEEP BANERJEE As flight disruptions continue, how IndiGo hit perfect storm: New rules, crew shortage Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, December 4 RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin, who reached New Delhi Thursday evening on a two-day state visit, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likelytounveiladeclarationfor the Development of Strategic Areas of India-Russia Economic Cooperation until 2030, move forward on a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, seal a labour mobility agreement and team up on Arctic shipbuilding, The Indian Express has learnt. In a special gesture indicating the close ties between the twocountriesandtheirleaders, ModireceivedPutinatDelhiairport. They also met for a private dinner at the Prime Minister’s Lok Kalyan Marg residence. PresentingacopyoftheGita in Russian to Putin, Modi, in a post on X late at night, said, “The teachings of the Gita give inspiration to millions across »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Stable ops by Feb 10, airline tells DGCA, seeks temporary relief from norms PM Narendra Modi welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin at Palam airport in New Delhi on Thursday. AP E. ExPlAINED Securing bilateral ties While it has cut import of Russian oil following US penalty tariffs, India is moving to secure its time-tested ties with Russia, exploring new avenues in areas ranging from trade to defence to civilian nuclear power. And Moscow too is responding. AFFIDAvIT IN SUPREME COURT MORE REPORTS, PAGE 12 Putin’s nuclear power hardsell: SMRs, new-gen large reactors, Make in India Anil Sasi New Delhi, December 4 RUSSIAN NUCLEAR company Rosatom State Corporation is likely to make a strong pitch for deploying its small modular reactors (SMR) for targeted applications in India, alongside efforts to position its large new-generation atomic power reactor-basedprojectsasthecornerstoneofthebilateralcooperationbetweenthetwocountries in the field of nuclear energy. Bilateral talks during RussianPresidentVladimirPutin's visit are expected to build on the working meeting that took place in Mumbai on November 10 between Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of India’s Department of Atomic Energy, andAlexeyLikhachev,Director General of Rosatom, a Russian statecorporationbasedinMoscow that specialises in nuclear energyandnuclearnon-energy products. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Sukalp Sharma New Delhi, December 4 PASSENGERS ON IndiGo continued to face disruption in travel plans Thursday with the airline cancelling over 250 flights across major airports. Since Tuesday, the carrier has had to cancel over 500 flights, withmanymoredelayedforextended periods. As the airline continued to grapplewithdisruptionsforthe third day running, IndiGo Thursday informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that it will start reduc- ing flight operations from December 8 to minimise the disruption—andexpectsnormalised and stable operations to be fully restored by February 10, the regulator said. However, more cancellations could be seen over the next two-three days as part of IndiGo’s schedule stabilisation efforts. The carrier, which is India’s largest and commands a domestic market share of over 60 per cent, also requested the DGCA for exemptions from some night operations-related »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Business as Usual By EP UNNY Four firms owned by Arunachal CM’s family got 146 govt contracts in Tawang SC directs state govt to give details of contracts in all districts for 2015-2025 Jay Mazoomdaar & Sukrita Baruah wOrlD pAGE 14 New Delhi, Guwahati, December 4 FOUR FIRMS, two owned by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s wife Tsering Dolma, and one each by his brother Tashi Khandu and sister-in-lawNimaDrema,were awarded 146 work contracts worth Rs 383.74 crore by the state government in Tawang districtalonebetween2012and 2023, as per an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court. Ofthis,59contractsworthRs 16.83 crore were awarded directlythroughworkorderswithout a tender being floated. At least 11 of these work orders exceededtheRs50lakhlimitsetin Firms owned by CM Khandu’s wife, brother, sister-in-law 2020 for contracts issued withouttenders,whichwasmeantto promotelocalprofessionalsand entrepreneurs in the state. The contracts were for the construction or maintenance of roads, bridges, drains, irrigation channels, power lines, retainingwalls,communityhalls, cultural centres, residential »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 mARITImE foRCE SHow: CHINA mASSING SHIpS ACRoSS REGIoN INsIDE pAGE 4 oNEyEARof fAdNAvIS3.0: HowfRICTIoN ovERSHAdowEd dEvELopmENT l STEPPED UP ROUND-THE-CLOCK VIGIL TO DETECT, PREVENT FIRES ON GROUND, SAY PUNJAB OFFICIALS Farm fires dip may be undercount, ISRO study flags shift in stubble-burning time Sohini Ghosh, Anju Agnihotri Chaba & Sophiya Mathew New Delhi, Jalandhar, December 4 A STUDY by the Ahmedabadbased Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) using data captured by European PAGE 1 geostationary satellites has reported a gradual shift in peak farm-fire activity in Punjab and Haryana from the early afternoontoearlyeveningover the five years beginning 2020. anchor Data on farm fires is based on information mapped by satellites. FILE While official data show a steady decline in incidents of farm fires in both states over thisperiod,theISROstudysuggests these falling numbers could in fact reflect an “underestimation of active fire events during October-November in Punjab and Haryana”. The data on farm fire inci- dents reported by government agenciessuchastheIndianAgricultural Research Institute (IARI) and various state remote sensing centres is based on informationmappedbysun-synchronous polar orbiting satellites such as NOAA’s Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) and NASA’s Terra MODIS and Aqua MODIS. The ISRO study used data from the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) meteorological satellites equipped with the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager(SEVIRI)thatareowned »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai
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