The Editorial Page: SIR judgment gets the law right, and the ground reality wrong 8 FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2026 JouRnAliSM of CouRAge NEw dElhI, lATE CITy, 18 pAgES ₹7.00 (₹8 rAIpur, ₹15 SrINAgAr) 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 , lu 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 la parliamentary panel has summoned officials of the Education Ministry, National Testing Agency and the CBI. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as Usual By EP UNNY reJeCteD Offer Of rs seat, nOt interesteD in natiOnal pOlitiCs, says siDDaramaiah Cong’s Karnataka slugfest ends: Siddaramaiah out, DK to be CM E. New govt may have 2 or 3 Dy CMs, including a Lingayat and a Dalit manoj C G & akram m New Delhi, Bengaluru, May 28 Two days after the Congress highcommandtoldhimtostep down, Karnataka Chief Minister siddaramaiah on Thursday resigned, paving the way for d K shivakumar to succeed him.Thenewgovernmentmay have two to three deputy CMs. siddaramaiah’s resignation brings curtains down on a protractedtussleforleadershipbetween him and shivakumar, the state Congress president and deputy CM.siddaramaiah met his Cabinet colleagues for breakfastandtoldthemthathe was stepping down as directed by the high command. shivakumar, who was also present, later accompanied siddaramaiah to Lok Bhavan. since Governor ThaawarchandGehlotwasnotinBengaluru,siddaramaiahhandedover hisresignationlettertotheGovernor'sspecialsecretaryPrabhu shankar. addressing a press conference with shivakumar »COntinUeD On paGe 2 explained Behind the timing outgoing karnataka chief minister siddaramaiah with deputy chief minister d k shivakumar in Bengaluru on Thursday. ANI The tussle between Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar finally came to an end due to three factors. First, Siddaramaiah’s age — he will be 80 during the 2028 Assembly polls. Second, the BJP’s expanding footprint in the North, East and West, which makes it crucial for the Congress to keep it out of the South. Third, the unwritten 2023 pact on power-sharing. report, paGe 6 Class 12 bOarD evalUatiOn rOw Firm roped in by CBSE overwhelmed & understaffed delivery wards, 53 deaths in a year: mp district is was under scanner Ground Zero for maternal mortality for Telangana exam mess; may be fined Red flags ignored as expectant mothers died due to ‘poor decision-making Contract was cancelled after glitches in board exam in 2019, also in evaluation vidheesha Kuntamalla & sreenivas Janyala inside New Delhi, Hyderabad, May 28 The CenTraL Board of secondary education (CBse) is considering imposing a financial penalty on hyderabadbased vendor Coempt edutech Pvt Ltd handling its new onscreen Marking (osM) system, after thousands of blurred answer-book scans and multiple cases of mismatched answer sheets were found during this year’s Class 12 board evaluationprocess,TheIndian paGe 7 pradhan: Some diScrepancieS... for thiS, i take reSponSiBility Express has learnt. sources said the CBse has identified 5,000 blurred answer-book scans so far and 23 cases where students received scanned copies belonging to another candidate’s answer sheet. »COntinUeD On paGe 2 Dhanendra Kumar, first chief of competition panel, dies in AC blast fire at South Delhi home during delivery’, ‘lack of preparedness of facilities’, The Indian Express finds anand mohan J Sidhi (MP), May 28 Their averaGe age was 26; the youngest was 19. Between april 2025 and March 2026, 53 women died before, during or after childbirth in a single district in Madhya Pradesh. The rising toll had not gone unnoticed — the state’s directorate of Public health and Medical education had highlighted it through letters, calls, whatsapp messages and review meetings. and yet, little changed, with the officials noting that “no improvement was ever made.” officials had a reason to be worried. india’s maternal mortality rate — or deaths per one lakh live births — fell to 87 in the latest sample registration system estimates for 2022–24, continuing a long-term nationaldecline.MadhyaPradesh ranked second among the country’s worst-performing states in maternal health outcomes, with an MMr of 159, pragynesh New Delhi, May 28 dhanendra KUMar, a retired ias officer who served as executivedirectorattheworld Bank and became the first Chairman of the Competition Commissionofindia,diedafter a fire, suspected to have been triggered by an explosion in an air conditioner, broke out at his hauz Khas home in south delhi wednesday night, police said Thursday. eighty-year-old Kumar was declared dead at the aiiMs Trauma Centre where he was taken after the incident. his son, also hospitalised, was said The world paGe 14 inside among the dead: (top, from left) Taravati Pandey, divya singh Baghel, roshni kewat and Lalita rajak; above: at the maternity ward of the community health centre in rampur naikin town of sidhi district. The district has a maternal mortality rate of 211, significantly higher than the national mmr of 87. ANANd MohAN j Bhopal, May 28 to be out of danger. senior police officers said the incident took place late wednesday night on the ground floor of the house where Kumar, his wife and son »COntinUeD On paGe 2 iran, U.S. trade fire, await trUmp’S nod on extenSion of ceaSefire down from 173 in 2018-2020. But the district in question — sidhi, which is part of the eastern tribal belt that also includes singrauli, shahdol, dindori, Umaria and anuppur — had a muchhigherMMr of 211, posingachallengethestatehas struggled to address. »COntinUeD On paGe 10 Twisha death: CBI arrests her retired judge mother-in-law anand mohan J dhanendra kumar, 80. paGe 10 ‘She died in my armS’: familieS recall ScramBle for Blood, tranSport, and Better care a day after the Madhya Pradesh high Court quashed her anticipatory bail, retired district judge Giribala singh was arrested by the CBi on Thursday in connection with the death of her daughter-in-law, Twisha sharma. The CBi took Giribala singh into custody after questioning Twisha sharma, Giribala singh herforseveralhoursatherBhopal home. The supreme Court, which took suo motu cognizanceofthecaseonMay23,had onMondayreferredtotheMadhya Pradesh government’s recommendation for a CBi probe, andsaidtheagencyshould“immediately” take over the investigation into the 33-year-old model and actor’s death. Twisha was found dead at her matrimonial home in the Bagmugalia locality of Bhopal »COntinUeD On paGe 2 china’s assistant Foreign minister hong Lei with sujit Ghosh, mea Joint secretary (east asia), in Beijing. X@ChINA_AMB_INdIA Making progress towards normal ties after border peace: India, China E. Officials hold explained talks in Beijing, Series of steps Doval-Wang meet Ever since the later this year disengagement of troops shubhajit roy New Delhi, May 28 UnderLininG ThaT “peace and tranquility in the border areas” has enabled “progress towardsgradualnormalisation of bilateral relations”, indian and Chinese officials have held talksinBeijingondelimitation, border management, mechanism building and cross-border cooperation. The meetingoftheworking Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on indiaChina Border affairs (wMCC) took place wednesday. The two countries have been trying to restore ties that plummeted after Chinese incursions along the Line of actual Control in eastern Ladakh from friction points in eastern Ladakh, China and India have taken a series of steps to repair ties: reduction in visa curbs, resumption of direct flights, revival of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, easing restrictions on Chinese businesses. triggeredamilitarystandoffsix years ago. disengagement of troops from friction points was completed in november 2024, a month after Prime Minister narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Kazan, russia. But an estimated 50,000 troops remain deployed in the depth areas on each side of the LaC in the region as the two »COntinUeD On paGe 2 IPL’s anti-graft unit warns against use of smart glasses in restricted zones varinder bhatia Chandigarh, May 28 TheiPL'santi-Corruptionand security Unit (aCsU) has issued a fresh advisory to players and support staff in the ongoingeditionoftheT20league, warning against the use of smart glasses, sunglasses and goggles equipped with communication and recording technology inside restricted areas on match days, The Indian Express has learnt. sources said the aCsU, which is responsible for monitoring integrity, preventing spot-fixing and enforcing security protocols in the league, hasinformedtheBCCithatseveral companies are actively marketing and selling smart eyewear products to players and teampersonnel participat- ing in the iPL. according to sources, the aCsU flagged that these smart devices are capable of livestreaming, sending and receiving text messages, and making audio and video calls through mobile data or wi-Fi networks, raising concerns over unauthorised communication and potential misuse during matches. Under the iPL's Player and Match officials area (PMoa) Minimum standards, such devices have been classified as “audio/video recording devices” and “Communication devices”. The aCsU has reiterated that possession or use of smart glasses and similar wearable technology is strictly prohibited inside the PMoa. Players and support staff have »COntinUeD On paGe 2 l aPPLicanTs say asked To Pay For serVices They didn’T know was oPTionaL At VFS centres in Delhi, Mumbai: Bill Rs 15,000, value added services Rs 5,000 nirbhay thakur, sarasvati thuppadolla, naresh s & sandeep singh visa but also the “extra” money that, many applicants said, they were asked to pay for serNew Delhi, Mumbai, May 28 vices they didn't know was optional. oUTsidevFsGlobalhouseon at these two centres, nearly delhi's KG Marg, the sun half of the 85 applicants this bounces off glass facades and newspaper spoke to comontothecrowdundertheshade plained of being “pushed toof a bunch of trees. a few wards” value added services: hundred metres premium lounge, page 1 away at the shivaji sMs alerts and courstadium metro staier fees. Two-thirds tion,anotherrestless ofover60applicants line of people clutch plastic outside vFs Global's Bandrafolders. KurlaComplexcentre in Mumwelcome to the two vFs baispokeaboutthesamepressGlobal centres in the national ure. capital, where the anxiety is it’s not just applicants. sevpalpable — not just about the eral current and former vFs anchor staff claimed they had to push premium services to meet “salestargets,”evensometimes leading applicants to believe that this would “improve their chances” at the visa centre. They echo concerns that european monitors have zeroed in on, a refrain in inspection records of schengen visa centres in 20 countries obtained by Lighthouse reports, anon-profitinvestigativenewsroombasedinUtrecht,Thenetherlands. These were collaborativelyinvestigatedbymedia organisations in 11 countries, including The Indian Express in india. These records flagged a People waiting outside the VFs Global centre in Bandra-kurla complex in mumbai. SANkhAdEEp BANErjEE range of concerns — from how applicants’dataisstoredonun- encrypted discs to “lapses” in informing applicants that value-added services (vas) are optional and have no link to visa approval. responding to the investigation, vFs Global said its services are transparent, tightly audited and “subject to rigorous and continuous government oversight”. inindia,recordsofregistrar of Companies (roC) show vas grewfrom6.3%(rs25.7crore)of thecompany'srs408crorerevenue in Fy 2015-16 to 17% (rs 114.7 crore) of rs 673 crore in Fy 2019-20. Between 2016 and 2024, profits rose 20-fold — from rs 7.7 crore to rs 155 crore — as revenue climbed from rs 411 crore to rs 1,125 crore. The company's consolidatedaccountsinLuxembourg consistentlyattributethefirm's growth to sales of vas. its operating profits have increased four-fold since 2017, reaching 172 million euros in 2024. over the same period, records show, the company processed just 15% more visas. The company stopped reportingvasrevenueseparately from Fy 2020-21, and started sharing break-up of revenue under segments. yet, a sample of around 2,000 receipts for swedish visa applications across 16 countries from a twoweek period last year — obtained by Lighthouse reports New Delhi throughaFreedomofinformation(Foi)request—showsvas accounting for over 30% of revenue. intheindiasample,thiswas largely driven by premium lounge services, with a 17% take-up rate contributing 21% of vFs revenue. Courier fees wereusedby55%ofapplicants, contributing 12%, while sMs services had a 46% take-up rate, contributing 6%. responding to queries on vas and employees pushing these services, vFs Global said applicants are “clearly informed” online and at visa application centres that they are »COntinUeD On paGe 2