DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2025, PUNE, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES ‘PAK MUST ACT ON TERRORISTS ON ITS SOIL’ 03/05/2025 86 114 140 62 HopeIndia’sresponse doesnotleadtobroader conflict,saysV-PVance Rejecting JSW Steel’s plan, SC orders Bhushan Power and Steel liquidation Worried about hotspot breaking out between two nuclear powers, says US V-P ANANTHAKRISHNAN G SHUBHAJIT ROY THE SUPREMECOURTFriday rejectedsteelmajorJSWSteelLtd’s Rs 19,000 crore bid to acquire Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)route,andorderedtheliquidation of the company. JSW acquired BPSL in March 2021 under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code. JSW Group Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal had then said that the acquisition had helped the group make an entry into Odisha and east India. Abenchof JusticeBelaTrivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma quashed and set aside the September 5, 2019, National Company Law Tribunal order and February 17, 2020, National CompanyLawAppellateTribunal FOR THE second day in succession, the US conveyed its understanding of India’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack with Vice-President J D Vance saying hiscountry hopesitwillnotlead to a “broader regional conflict” — and that the US expects Islamabad to “cooperate” with New Delhi to “hunt down” terrorists “sometimes operating from their soil”. Vanceisthelatestseniorrepresentative of the US administration, after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, to spell out the US line on the terror attack that killed 26 people. Vance and his family were in India on a fourday visit when the attack — the worst since Pulwama in 2019 — took place in J&K on April 22. AskedontheFoxNewsshow, NEW DELHI, MAY 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, MAY 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 US Vice-President J D Vance speaks during a tour at Nucor Steel Berkeley in Huger, South Carolina, Thursday. AP Right now, China occupies Bagram air base: Trump YOSHITA SINGH NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, MAY 2 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has claimed that China now occupies the Bagram air base in Afghanistan. The US vacated Bagram, its biggest airfield in the country, in July 2021. “But we were going to keep Bagram, the big Air Force base, which is one hour away from EXPLAINED GLOBAL THESTRATEGIC AFGHAN AIRFIELD PAGE 16 where China makes its nuclear weapons. That’s what they do. Theymaketheirnuclearmissiles andonehourawayfromBagram, and I said you can’t give up CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After 15 yrs, domestic Insider trading case: SEBI institutions upstage accuses Adani’s nephew FPIs in ownership of Pranav, he seeks to settle listed stocks on NSE JAYSHREE P UPADHYAY MUMBAI, MAY 2 DIIs shareholding at 17.62% in NSE listed companies surpasses that of FPIs at 17.22% GEORGE MATHEW & HITESH VYAS MUMBAI, MAY 2 IN WHAT could significantly changehowthestockmarket responds to global cues, the share of domestic institutional investors (DIIs) has surpassed that of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) as on March 31, 2025. DIIs include insurers and mutual THE HOME SURGE 24% 20% 16% 12% FII share 13.44 8% 11.39 30-Jun -2009 17.62 17.22 DII share 31-Mar -2025 funds, which have seen a steady flow of funds from retail investors in recent years. The share of DIIs in the NSE universe of listed companies reached an all-time highof 17.62 percentasonMarch31thisyear, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE SECURITIES and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has alleged Pranav Adani, director of several Adani group companies and the nephew of the billionaire founder, shared price sensitive informationand breached regulations aimed at preventing insidertrading,accordingtoa document reviewed by Reuters. Adani, the nephew of Gautam Adani, was sent a notice by the SEBI last year which alleged he shared information about Adani Green’s 2021 acquisition of SoftBank-backed SB Energy Holdingswithhisbrother-in-law before the deal was announced, according to a source and the document. The matter has not been previously reported. In an e-mailed response sent to Reuters, Pranav Adani said he was seeking to settle the charges “to put an end to the matter, without admission or denial of the allegations” and that “he has not violated any securities law”. Settlementtermswerebeing discussed, said the source with direct knowledge of the matter, whodeclinedtobenamedasthe matter is confidential. ThescrutinyisthelatestchallengefortheAdanigroup.USauthorities last year indicted Gautam Adani and two Adani Green executives for allegedly paying bribes to secure Indian powersupplycontractsandmisleading US investors. The group has denied the charges and called them “baseless”. Pranav Adani “communicated UPSI (unpublished price sensitive information) CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 To Attari and back, J&K constable: I would rather die than go to Pakistan PAGE 1 ANCHOR ARUN SHARMA JAMMU, MAY 2 ON APRIL 26, when a senior officer called him to say that he and his eight siblings had to leave India because they were considered Pakistan citizens, Iftkhar Ali felt as if someone had cut the ground from beneath his feet. Having served 27 years in theJ&KPoliceserviceandknowing no other home, he told his shocked superior officer he would “kill himself” rather than cross the border. “Like you, I too had only heard of Pakistan,” Iftkhar, a 45year-old constable from Salwah village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, tells The Indian At the Integrated Check Post near Attari-Wagah border in Amritsar district on Friday. PTI Express now. “I have everything — my wife and children, relatives, friends, and colleagues — here. There’s nothing in `7.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Pakistan.” On April 29 — three days afterheandhiseightsiblingswere issueda‘LeaveIndia’noticeinthe aftermathof thePahalgamterror attack—theJammuandKashmir HighCourtstayedit,orderingthe central government and the J&K administration against forcing them to leave India. The order came on the back of a petition that he filed in the High Court against the notice. As a result, Ali and his eight siblings — older brothers Zulfqar Ali, 49, Mohammad Shafiq, 60, and Mohammad Shakoor, 52; and his sisters Shazia Tabsam, 42, Kouser Parveen, 47, Naseem Akhter, 50, Akseer Akhtar, 54, and Nashroon Akhter, 56 — have now returned to the village. Althoughhegotanotice,neither his wife nor his three minor sons got one “because they were CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TRANSSHIPMENT PORT INAUGURATED IN KERALA Opening Vizhinjam port, PM swipe at Opp: ‘This will give sleepless nights to many’ SHAJU PHILIP & SIDDHANT KONDUSKAR Delhi Police question former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar for 8 hrs EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MAY 2 THE DELHI Police Crime Branch on Friday questioned former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar in connection with a caseof alleged cheating by “faking her identity to fraudulently avail attempts beyond the permissible limit” in the civil services examination. Accordingtoofficials,sheappeared before a Crime Branch team at the Kamla Market office around 10 a.m. and remained there for around eight hours. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, VIZHINJAM, MAY 2 DEDICATING THE Vizhinjam port in Left-ruled Kerala to the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday took a dig attheCPI(M)foritslongstanding oppositiontoprivateinvestment. Praising the Adani group for completingtheconstructionina shortspan,Modisaidinthepresence of industrialist Gautam Adani,“Ihavereturnedfromvisiting the port. When the people of Gujarat come to know that Adani has built such a good port here in Kerala — he has been working on ports in Gujarat for 30years,buthehasnotbuiltsuch a port there yet — he will have to be ready to face their anger. I wouldalsoliketosaytoourChief Minister(PinarayiVijayan)—you are a strong pillar of the INDI Alliance. (Congress MP) Shashi Tharoor is also sitting here, and today’seventwillgivemanypeople sleepless nights.” TheRs8,800-croreVizhinjam ‘FAKE CERTIFICATES’ CONTINUEDONPAGE2 BUSINESS AS USUAL PM Narendra Modi, Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar, CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and others at the Vizhinjam International Seaport Friday. PTI International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport is being developed by Adani Ports and SEZ Limited on a design, build, finance,operateandtransfer(DBFOT) model. In 2015, when the then Congress regime inked the deal with the Adani group, the CPI(M), then in the Opposition, had dubbed it a land scam of Rs 6,000 crore. However, at the inaugural venue, CPI(M) leader and state Port Minister V N Vasavan referred to the industrialist as “our partner Adani”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BY UNNY