eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE From Seat to Stage AHMEDABAD,LATECITY JULY21,2024 How the equation between stars and fans has changed in the South 14+4PAGES,`6.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA City-wiseNEETresults show3.5%students gotover600outof720 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE VADODARA, JULY 20 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 GUJARAT BSF OFFICER, CONSTABLE DIE DUE TO ‘EXTREME HEAT EXPOSURE’ PAGE 3 In 109 centres, share of high scorers is 3 times over national avg; 60 in Sikar, Kota 4,750 Security forces in Dhaka on Saturday, amid a curfew in response to protests against government job quotas. Reuters Delhi cautious as Dhaka in siege, over 100 killed in anti-reservation protests SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JULY 20 WITH MORE than 100 killed as protests against job quotas convulse Bangladesh and hold Dhaka in siege, New Delhi has been cautious not to comment onwhatitcallsan“internal”matter.Amidcurfewandaninternet shutdown imposed by the Sheikh Hasina government, the IndianmissioninBangladeshhas facilitated the return of 978 Indians — 778 through land borders and another 200-odd through flights, the Ministry of External Affairs said Saturday. The first batch of 245 Indians returnedFridaynightandthemission is in touch with more than 4,000Indianstudentsremaining. The protests in Bangladesh against the quota for freedom fighters’ families in government jobs has escalated over the last week, since Hasina’s statement onJuly14—“If thegrandchildren of the freedom fighters don't get 4 yrs after life In NCERT’s new textbook, sentence for murder, former Harappan society is ‘Sindhu-Sarasvati civilisation’ BJP MLA set for early release government in alignment with NEW DELHI, JULY 20 FROM REFERRING to the Harappan civilisation as the ‘Sindhu-Sarasvati’ and ‘IndusSarasvati’civilisation,tomultiple mentions of the ‘Sarasvati’ river, includingnotingitsdesiccationas oneof thereasonsforthedecline oftheHarappansociety,toamention of India having had a “prime meridian of its own” called the ‘Ujjayini meridian’ — the new NCERTClass6SocialSciencetextbookreleasedonFridayincorporates many new elements. ‘Exploring Society: India and Beyond’isthefirstSocialScience textbook released by the NDA the National Curriculum FrameworkforSchoolEducation 2023. It is intended for use in schoolsstartingfromthecurrent academic session. Unlike earlier, when there were separate textbooks for History, Political Scienceand Geography, the new textbook is the sole resource for Social Science. The bookexplains thatSocial Science has many sub-disciplines, but students “need not feel intimidated by all these terms”. Instead, the book is divided into five themes: ‘India and the World: Land and the People’; ‘Tapestry of the Past’; ‘Our Cultural Heritage and CONTINUEDONPAGE2 quotabenefits,shouldthegrandchildrenof Razakarsgetthebenefit?” — sparked outrage among young protestors in the country. The bone of contention is the 30 per cent quota reserved for families of Bangladesh freedom fighters in the country’s governmentjobs.Protesterssay theseare CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHOOT-AT-SIGHT ORDER, CURFEW PAGE 12 E E X P L A I NE D Around 1,000 Indians return, ruling Awami League blames Opp Politics of 1971 and ● job crisis USING 1971 to push the Opposition into a corner isn’t new in the winnertakes-all politics of the Awami League, that's been in power for the last 17 years. All eyes are now on the court in early August for an exit route for the government. NEET IN NUMBERS 23,33,162 CITIESWITHHIGHEST Totalstudents NO.OF650+SCORERS City No.ofstudents SCORECARD Sikar 2,037 A score of over 600 was enough to Jaipur 1,681 land a seat in a govt college in 2023 NewDelhi 1,326 Marks Students *%share Kota 1,066 Patna 744 Above700 2,321 0.10 Kottayam 544 Above650 30,204 1.29 BengaluruUrban 525 Above600 81,550 3.50 Lucknow 459 Above550 1,42,114 6.09 Kozhikode 456 Above500 2,10,162 9.01 Malappuram 449 (* of total students) All figures approx Totalcentres SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXTBOOK FOR CLASS 6 ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT SC TO HEAR MATTER ON MONDAY Gujarat govt prematurely retires 3rd Class I officer in a month STATING THAT the decision has beentaken"inpublicinterest",the Gujarat government on Saturday notifiedtheprematureretirement of a Class 1 officer, Pankaj Barot, whowasservingasthechief officerofPetladMunicipalityuntilafternoon. Barot became the third Class I officer to be prematurely retired"withimmediateeffect"in one month. In a notification signed by Deputy Secretary (Urban Development and Urban Housing) Manish Shah, the government said that in exercise of the powers conferred by Rule 10(4)of theGujaratCivilServices (Pension) Rules, 2002, and in pursuance of the government resolution issued on September 29, 2023, the state, “in public interest”, prematurely retires Barot, municipal chief officer Class 1 of Petlad Municipality, with immediate effect from July 20, 2024. “He shall be paid an amount equivalent to three months’ salary and allowances, calculated at the same rate he was WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM RITIKA CHOPRA & HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, JULY 20 COMPLYING WITH THE Supreme Court’s directions, the National Testing Agency (NTA) Saturday released individual scoresof roughly23.5lakhcandidates who appeared for the NEET-UG2024examination.The exams ran into a controversy afterreportsof questionpaperleak. Of the total candidates, a little over81,000candidates(or3.49per cent)scored600andaboveoutof 720marksintheexaminationthis year. In 2023, there were 29,351 such candidates (1.43 per cent of total), and in 2022, there were 21,164 candidates (1.19 per cent of total). Ascoreof morethan600was good enough to land a seat in a government medical college in 2023. According to the city-wise and centre-wiseresults released by NTA as ordered by the CONTINUEDONPAGE2 CBI NABS NIT GRAD, 2 MBBS STUDENTS PAGE 9 Poor scrutiny of invigilators, unsafe internet link: Panel flags gaps in exams MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, JULY 20 OUTSOURCING EXAMS to private labs which don’t use “safe” internet connections,useof personal hotspots to download question papers, no proper scrutiny of invigilators, some exam centres located in secludedareas—thesearesomeof the concerns raised by a committee set up to identify shortcomings intestingproceduresin the wake of the NEET-UG row. This committee, comprising officials of the National Forensic Sciences University, National Testing Agency (NTA) and “specialised cyber related departments”, is separate from the high-level committee of experts chaired by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan set up by the Education Ministry. According tosources, followingtherecentcontroversiesover CONTINUEDONPAGE2 BEHIND PSMC-TATA VENTURE As Taipei takes a short step forward, Delhi assures smooth long road MANISH SAHU ANIL SASI OVER FOUR years after a court in Uttar Pradesh sentenced former BJP MLA Uday Bhan Karwariya tolifeimprisonmentforthe1996 murder of a Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA, the state government has ordered his premature release, with Governor Anandiben Patel approving his mercy petition, officials said. The decision was based on recommendations by the Prayagraj SSP, the District Magistrate and a mercy petition committee — as well as Uday THAT TAIWAN and India ought to be strategic partners, especially in chip fabrication, is a steady refrain in Taipei City and New Delhi. Taiwan is an undisputed world leader and India is keen to make late inroads in this domain. On the ground, however, the partnership faces challenges even as there’s a shared sense of strategic alignment. Despiteastrongnudgebyformer President Tsai Ing-wen to Taiwan’s chip fabrication giants to consider investing in India, there’s only one company that LUCKNOW, JULY 20 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 TAIPEI, NEW DELHI, JULY 20 Hsinchu Science Park, the hub of chip making in Taiwan. Soumyarendra Barik hassteppedup—Hsinchu-based Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp or PSMC, one of Taiwan’s smaller chipmakers that fabricates legacy CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 From the city of diamonds in Gujarat, two table tennis players set sights on Paris Olympics gold PAGE 1 ANCHOR ANIL DIAS SURAT, JULY 20 NOTHING ABOUTSurat screams sport. Around the railway station, one can overhear people talking about bulls and bears, minutes before stock markets open. As one drives further into the city, past the textile mills and the bazaarsfullof sparklingdiamond shops,twoyoungmeninthiscity of dhandho (business) and diamondshavebeenobsessingover gold. And they will get their first shotatitlaterthismonthinParis. Surat, a city with practically zero Olympic sports history and negligible infrastructure, will now boast of two Olympian table tennis players — Harmeet Desai, 31, and Manav Thakkar, 24. Harmeet will compete in the singleseventandwillalsobepart the team event at the competition with Manav. Though both are from Surat, their road to Paris couldn’t have been more different. WhenHarmeettookuptable Harmeet Desai (left) and Manav Thakkar. Anil Dias tennisattheageof six,Suratdidn’t have any sporting clubs and the only TT table was at St Xavier’s School, near his house. Luckily for him, his father Rajul loved the game, which he had played at the university level. Harmeet was introduced to TT by his father. “There was a British club where I grew up. When it was closing down, my father managed to get one TT tablefrom there.That’showIfell in lovewiththesport.Harmeet’s love for TT has come from me,” Rajul says. Harmeet’s story begins at his old family home, a massive three-storeybluebungalow that is now a primary school run by his mother Archana. It also doubles up as a TT academy run by his older brother Hraday. Harmeet was around six when one of Rajul’s friends wanted to give away a TT table. Rajul, then a partner in a stockbroking firm, thought it was an opportunitytoreignitehispassion for the sport. Since space wasn’t an issue at his house, he assembledthetableonthegroundfloor, opposite a 12-foot waterfall. Harmeet’s love affair with the game blossomed in this very CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad