The Editorial Page: Census is about who we are. It cannot ignore migration, caste 8 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025 Journalism of Courage KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in Andaman) 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 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, which has been expanded from 32 teams, will be the biggest in the competition’s history. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPRESS.COM Business as Usual By EP UNNY RUSSIAN PRESIDENT ON STATE vISIT, fIRST SINCE START Of UKRAINE wAR Modi-Putin talks today: Strategic economic 2030 roadmap likely Putin’s n-power hardsell: SMRs, new-gen large reactors, Make in India On table: Defence, manpower pact, progress on FTA with Eurasian Economic Union Anil Sasi New Delhi, December 4 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, PM Narendra Modi welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin at Palam airport in New Delhi on Thursday. AP MORE REPORTS, PAGE 7 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 »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 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 Russian President VladimirPutin'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 Jay Mazoomdaar & Sukrita Baruah New Delhi, December 4 A DAY ahead of the deadline to register Waqf properties on a portal launched by the Centre on June 6, details of about a third to around tenth of the properties have been uploaded infourofthefivestateswiththe »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 New Delhi, Guwahati, December 4 Aliah varsity students protest against new Waqf law in Kolkata on Thursday. EXPRESS 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-law Nima Drema, Firms owned by CM Khandu’s wife, brother, sister-in-law As flight disruptions continue, how IndiGo hit perfect storm: New rules, crew shortage »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 Waqf deadline today, SC TELLS STATE gOvT TO gIvE DETAILS Of ALL DISTRICTS Bengal has registered Four firms owned by CM’s family 12% properties so far got 146 govt contracts in Tawang Asad Rehman Passengers at the IndiGo counter at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Thursday. PTI were awarded 146 work contracts worth Rs 383.74 crore by the state government in Tawang district alone between 2012 and 2023, as per an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court. Of this, 59 contracts worth Rs 16.83 crore were awarded directly through work orders »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 Kolkata Stable ops by Feb 10, airline tells DGCA, seeks temporary relief from norms 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 -- and expects normalised 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