The Editorial Page: India’s next manufacturing leap will be about what it produces 13 SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2026 Journalism of Courage PuNE, lATE CITy, 22 PAgES ₹7.00 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 GOYAL fLAGS 5-YEAR EU DEfENcE BUDGET Of EURO 800 BN AS AN OPPORTUNITY 114 142 176 75 JALNA A RED initiative appears in today’s edition of The In dian Express. These pages are an initiative of the marketing solutions team of The Indian Express Group and contain content paid for by advertisers. These pages should be read as advertisement. Business as Usual By EP UNNY EU deal goes beyond trade... can Ajit’s wife Sunetra lift manufacturing, says Goyal set to be Maharashtra Says technical E. Deputy chief Minister know-how, ExplainEd Why India, EU see deal as win-win investment to spur industry to build capacities Anil Sasi & P Vaidyanathan Iyer New Delhi, January 30 INDIA IS looking at ramping up itsmanufacturingwithtechnologyknow-howandinvestments fromEuropeancountriesthatgo well beyond just trade, said Union Commerce and Industry PM Narendra Modi and EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa witness the exchange of MoU between Union Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday. ANI FULL TRANSCRIPT OF GOYAL’S INTERVIEW TOMORROW MinisterPiyushGoyal,afterhavingwrappedupthenegotiations foraFreeTradeAgreementwith SC: Menstrual health is part of fundamental right to life the European Union. InaninterviewwithTheIndian Express, Goyal said, “The The EU trade deal offers an opportunity for Indian manufacturing to scale up and emerge as an alternative to China as a supplier for the 27-member European bloc . It is being seen as a win-win for both. fact is that this (the deal) is much more than just trade. It is »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE BIg PIcTURE Orders free sanitary pads, separate toilets in all govt and private schools Ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, January 30 FILmFINANcIEr‘gEtS ExtortIoNcALLFrom LAWrENcEgANg’ P3 fORMAL ANNOUNcEMENT ExPEcTED TODAY STATING THAT the right to menstrualhealthisapartofthe right to life, a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court on Friday directed all States and Union Territories to putinplaceMenstrualHygiene Management (MHM) measures, including gendersegregatedtoiletsandfreesanitarynapkins,inallgovernment as well as private schools. Issuing a slew of directions, the bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan asked »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A L L t H At ’ S L E F t B E H I N D Process begins to return AI-171 crash victims’ personal effects to their next of kin PAgE 19 Decision comes hours after NCP delegation met CM Fadnavis Alok Deshpande & Shubhangi Khapre Mumbai, January 30 AJIT PAWAR’S wife and Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar is set to succeed her late husband as Maharashtra Deputy Chief MinisteronSaturday,becoming thefirstwomantoholdthepost. Sunetra will be appointed the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Legislature Party leader at 2 pm and will be sworn in as DeputyCMlaterintheevening, sources in the party said. The decision came hours afterNCPbeganformalconsultations with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on filling the Deputy CM’s post, even as theBJPindicateditwouldleave the decision to its alliance partner while maintaining the existing balance within the ruling government. A delegation comprising Rajya Sabha MP and NCP working president Praful Patel, state party chief and Lok Sabha MP Sunil »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar (right) with NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule at his funeral in Baramati, Thursday. PTI RELATED REPORTS, PAGE 6 ‘What can we do?’: INDIA signals limited options amid NCP merger buzz Asad Rehman New Delhi, January 30 AMID A push for the reunificationoftheNationalistCongress Party (NCP) and speculation that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) faction may “join the government”followingthemerger, the other parties in the Opposition INDIA bloc have adopted a wait-and-watch approach. “What can we do?” asked a senior All India Congress Com- mittee (AICC) leader in Delhi. “The two factions and the (Pawar)familyhavetotakeacall. A senior member of the family hasdiedandwedon’twanttointerfere and make any overtures right now. We are watching the situationandwilldosomething as the situation develops.” The two NCP factions were set to announce their merger on February 8, before the untimely demise of Maharashtra »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2