The Editorial Page: Energy transition will need more than chasing the sun or the wind 10 SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES ₹6.00 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 happening today lUNION HOME MINISTER Amit Shah will be in the Andamans to chair a meeting of MHA parliamentary consultative committee. lTHIS YEAR’S FIRST FULL Moon will be seen in sky. It will also be Supermoon. lANOTHER EDITION OF men’s Hockey India League begins, with the tournament shifting into three venues this year. lPAKISTAN’S DEPUTY PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar begins his 3-day visit to China and co-chair the Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue. NATION PAgE 6 BAgHEL’S SON gETS BAIL IN LIqUOR SCAM BOARD OF TRADE MEETING 10 DEAD FROM CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER Behind Indore deaths, civic collapse, health Exports hurt: system struggling with deluge of patients States flag HC directs supply of water through tankers Over 66,000 screened; many first rushed to small clinics barely equipped to deal with crisis Anand Mohan J New Delhi, January 2 Anand Mohan J New Delhi, January 2 THE SURGE began as a trickle assixpatientswereadmittedat Bhagirathpura’sUrbanPrimary HealthCentreonDecember28. Within48hours,thattricklebecame a deluge as outpatient clinicssawnumbersjumpfrom 129 to over 300 in a single day. Within a week, a hurriedly Residents affected by the contaminated water at Bhagirathpura in Indore on Friday. PTI BJP UNDER FIRE, CM STEPS IN, PAGE 7 mobilised army of health workers had screened 66,107 people across nearly 13,000 households. These were the scenes playing out in a densely populated neighbourhood in Indore, which has time and again topped the rankings of Indian cities for its cleanliness and management.Exceptthistime, the contamination of drinking waterbywastefromatoilethad »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HEARINGApublicinterestlitigation in connection with the deaths linked to contaminated drinking water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura, the Madhya PradeshHighCourthasordered the municipal corporation to supplyadditionalwatertankers and urged authorities to “uphold the beauty of Indore”. ADivisionBenchofJustices Dwarkadhish Bansal and RajendraKumarVanidirectedthe municipal corporation and the Saurabh Parashar Magh Mela Begins Today Boats anchored at the Sangam in Prayagraj on Friday, a day before the start of the annual Magh Mela. PTI Pal. A former 400m runner, Pal spotted Misti during the pandemic lockdown and convinced Sanjay to let him coach his daughter free of cost. “And I madehimapromise—tomake Misti an ‘India’ athlete,” Pal says. “Like Neeraj Chopra.” AT JUST 12, Misti Karmakar’s days began before dawn. By 3.30 am, she was on her bike, pedalling 4 km through the silent streets of West Bengal’s Malda, a javelin in tow, to write her story in the morning sky. Raising an athlete daughter l was a struggle for Sanjay Karmakar, a hawker at the Malda railway station. On a good day, he would earn Rs 500; just enough to feed the family and keep hope flickering. But when it came to Misti’s future, there would be no compromise. “She comes from a very modest background but is rich intalent,”saysMisti’scoachAsit »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE BIG PICTURE Participation in National Javelin Day, to celebrate Neeraj Chopra’s Olympics gold, has grown from 700 in 2022 to 4,974 in 2025. AP FILE As champions rise, a wave follows P 15 E. New Delhi, January 2 Lucknow, January 2 Big jumps in disciplines where Indians emerged as world beaters; in javelin, 125% spike in women’s participation Mihir Vasavda Ravi Dutta Mishra Express News Service Podium to playground: How big medals fuelled excellence in javelin, shooting, badminton Mumbai, January 2 Exporters say raw materials 15-20% more expensive than global prices MaghMelatravel: Trainsdiverted fromPrayagraj Sangamstation onkeysnandays Shimla, January 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 By EP UNNY »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Woman student dead: 4 seniors, professor booked in Himachal FOUR WOMEN students of a government college in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala havebeenbookedonchargesof ragging and voluntarily causing hurt while a professor has been booked for sexual harassment of a 19-year-old student who died on December 26, police said Friday. The19-year-olddiedduring treatment at a hospital in Ludhiana, Punjab, and an FIR was registered Thursday based on a complaint by her father. The man alleged his daughter was harassed and assaulted by three senior students on September 18 last year and the college professor “indulged in obscene acts” with her. The victim’s family and the accused are from Dharamshala. The victim belonged to Scheduled Caste community. Business as Usual facility and testing gaps AHEADOFtheMaghMelathat commences on Saturday, the Northern Railway has issued a travel advisory for those travelling to Prayagraj via train. The railways has announced the suspension of train arrivals and departures at Prayagraj Sangam railway station on key snan days, when devotees take a holy dip in the Sangam. The advisory covers the period from January 2 to February 16, with the main bath daysfallingonJanuary3,14,18, 23, and February 1 and 15. Trainsoperationswillbehalted a day before these ‘snan’ days and will resume the day after. Senior Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railway (NR), Lucknow Division, Kuldeep Tiwari, said, “The decision to close the Sangam railway station during snan days — a day before and a day after — is because this railway stationisbarelyone-and-halfkilometres from the Sangam area, where devotees go for the holy bath... and it gets heavily crowded (numbering lakhs). During the Maha Kumbh in 2024, this station remained closed for operations completely.” He told The Indian ExpressthattrainsdestinedtoSangam railway station will now arrive at NR’s Phaphamau and Prayag junctions. Departures of these trains will be from Prayag junction, on days when operationsareclosedatSangamrailwaystation. He further said the decision wastakentopreventchaosand divert the crowd to other stations, where arrangements have been made for arrival and departure of trains concerned. Devotees and passengers have »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ExPlAINED IT’SNOTjusthighUStariffsthat arehurtingexports.Costlierraw Feedback from materials,shortageoftestingfastates, exporters cilities to ensure products meet global quality standards, and IN THE Board of Trade meetlack of adequate shipping con- ing, representatives from tainers are all leading to loss of states and the industry, as competitiveness of goods ex- well as key Central minisports,UnionCommerceandIn- tries, provide the Commerce dustryMinistrysaidinresponse Ministry with specific inputs toanRighttoInformation(RTI) to boost exports and trade. In application. November, more than 120 These challenges were representatives provided flagged by exporters in a meet- suggestions on the hurdles ingoftheBoardofTradechaired they faced. byUnionCommerceandIndustryMinisterPiyush of 50 per cent, and Goyal on NovemYOur rIGhT both countries failber 25. The BoT is ing to conclude a an advisory body trade deal till the and suggests meaAN EXPRESS RTI fall of 2025. India suresrelatedtoforAPPLICATION was one of the first eign trade policy countriestoinitiate and procedural simplifications to boost trade. trade talks with the US when The Indian Express had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi thedetailsoftheBoTmeetingin visitedWashingtoninFebruary last year. its RTI application. The steep US tariffs, which TheBoTmeetinghappened in the backdrop of slowing ex- came into effect on August 27, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ports due to the steep US tariffs to know Grok’s use against women: Govt seeks X response in 3 days Considering law to regulate AI content on social media: Vaishnaw Soumyarendra Barik New Delhi, January 2 TAKING NOTE of artificial intelligence service Grok being abused to generate objectionable pictures and videos of women, without their consent, the government has sent a missive to social media platform X, saying it was not adhering to the country’s laws. Raising red flags over “serious failure” in enforcement of safeguards, it has sought information within 72hoursabouttechnicaldetails related to Grok’s actions. “Grok AI developed by you and integrated and made available on the X platform, is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatoryorvulgarmannerin order to indecently denigrate them,” the IT Ministry said in the notice sent Friday to X’s chief compliance officer. The government said the service was being used by people to target women, who host or publish their images or videos, through prompts, image manipulation and synthetic outputs, and said “such conduct reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguardsandenforcementmechanisms, and amounts to gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of applicable laws”. This, the IT Ministry said, is being viewed with “grave concern” asitcouldviolatethedignity, privacy and safety of women and children, “normalising sexual harassment and exploitation in digital spaces, andunderminingthestatutory duediligenceframeworkapplicable to intermediaries operating in India”. It has directed X to submit a detailed action taken report »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GALAXY FROGS LIVE EXCLUSIVELY UNDER ROTTEN LOGS IN KERALA’S WESTERN GHATS 7 of world’s rarest frogs presumed dead, study blames rise in photo tourism Alind Chauhan appearing. According to the study, a group of seven galaxy frogs IT MAY be no bigger than a fin- vanished, all likely to be dead, gertip, but it appears to carry after multiple photographers thecosmosonitsback.Itsshiny descended on their habitat, black skin is dotted with pale causing disturbances and beblue speckles, resembling a havioural changes that could clear night sky studded with have disrupted their feeding stars. There are also dashes of and breeding success. Thereport,titled‘Unethical orangepatterns,reminiscentof wildlife photograluminoussupernova PAGE 1 phy imperils the explosions. Western Ghats enGalaxy frogs demic galaxy frog, (Melanobatrachus indicus) are one of the rarest Melanobatrachus indicus Bedand most dazzling amphibians dome, 1878’, was published in in the world that live exclus- the journal Herpetology Notes ively under rotten logs in Ke- on December 17, 2025. The rala’s Western Ghats. However, study was authored by K P the elusive species is now dis- Rajkumar, Benjamin Tapley, New Delhi, January 2 anchor Jyoti Das and Sandeep Das — all of them fellows at the Zoological Society of London — andPSEasa,thechairpersonof Thrissur-basedAranyakamNatureFoundation,anon-government organisation working for biodiversity conservation. Although galaxy frogs were first discovered in 1878, not much is known about them since they are difficult to find. Measuring between 2 cm and 3.5 cm, these frogs do not produce sounds. Scientists believe they use their spots to communicate,makingexistingdata about their population and breeding behaviour deficient. The frogs are already listed as vulnerable to extinction by Shola National Park in 2021. The case of missing galaxy frogs A galaxy frog (Melanobatrachus indicus). WIKIMEDIA COMMONS the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Among major threats to these creatures are the conversionofforestareastofarmland, firewood collection and land- slides. However, in recent years, photo tourism has emergedasanewdangertogalaxy frogs, especially after they were designated as the flagship species of Kerala’s Mathikettan In March 2020, Rajkumar, the lead author of the latest report, and his team discovered seven galaxy frogs in a forest patch in the Western Ghats. The researchers had been visiting the area as part of a programme to monitor these amphibians since 2019, with approval from the Kerala forests department. The Covid-19 pandemic broke out soon after their discovery. Even as the researchers couldnotreturntotheareadue to the pandemic, hordes of photographers landed at the site between June 2020 and April2021.“Thephotographers were familiar with the microhabitatofthespeciesfrompublicationsandlocaltrackers,and overturned many logs whilst searching for the species,” the study said. When Rajkumar and his team finally revisited the spot in August 2021, the logs under which the frogs had been discovered earlier had been displaced and the vegetation trampled. The galaxy frogs had vanished. A local informant told the researchersthatphotographers often captured the frogs with their bare hands and moved them to moss or other logs for “morepicturesquebackdrops”. The amphibians were exposed to high-powered camera flashesfornearlyfourhoursper session, according to the study. The informant told the group that two of these frogs had died during these marathon photography sessions, a claim that Rajkumar and his team could not verify. The researchers returned to the site in November 2021 and May 2022, but never saw the galaxy frogs again. All of them are presumed dead. Perils of wildlife photography According to the paper, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow