The Editorial Page: Let’s resist easy indictments of Indian Knowledge Systems 8 reG.no. mcs/067/2018 - 20 rnI reGn. no. 1543/57 MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2026 JouRnAlism of CouRAge MUMBAi, lATe CiTy, 18 PAges ₹5.00 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 No need to worry about US Section 301, we will tackle it… confident of a good trade deal: Goyal Asks India Inc to get out of ‘comfort zone’, look for opportunities at home, abroad Express news service Mumbai, June 7 dAys AfTeR the Trump administration proposed 12.5% tariffs on india and 53 other countries after a united states Trade Representative (usTR) trade investigation under section 301 of the us Trade Act of 1974 declared that these countries failed to impose a legal prohibition on “importation of goods produced wholly or in Union Minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai, Sunday. sANKhADeeP BANerJee part with forced labour”, Commerce and industry Minister Piyush goyal said sunday he didn’tthinktherewasanyneed toworryaboutsection301,and that “we will tackle it”. The proposed tariffs have been announced while us and indian negotiators are finalisingabilateraltradeagreement. speaking at the Financial Express india’s best banks Awards in Mumbai, goyal said usTradeRepresentativeJamieson greer will visit india in the next two weeks for further discussions on the trade deal. earlier, he had indicated an agreement could be reached by July. “so this (section 301 investigation) is really a mechanism »COnTinUED On pagE 2 sECOnD pRiCE REVisiOn sinCE CRisis in WEsT asia LPG cylinder price up Rs 29; OMCs still losing Rs 700: Govt Ministry: Price of household cylinder lower than that in neighbouring countries l Afterthehike city Price Delhi rs 942 Kolkata rs 968 Mumbai rs 941.50 Chennai rs 957.50 sukalp sharma New Delhi, June 7 Some MPs out of reach, Mamata Cabinet note indicates in Delhi amid fears of rebellion lower expenses than projected even as Opp attacks conditions MahaRashTRa faRM lOan WaiVER Manoj C g & Ravik Bhattacharya New Delhi, Kolkata, June 7 State earmarked Rs 36,585 cr for the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar scheme alok Deshpande Mumbai June 7 eVen As opposition parties have criticised the Maharashtra government’snewlyannounced farmloanwaiverschemeforimposingeligibilityconditionsthat couldexcludealargenumberof distressed farmers, a cabinet notesaysthescheme’seligibility restrictions are among the reasons the state’s eventual expenditure is expected to be lower than the projected outlay, The IndianExpress has learned. A farm loan waiver means the government pays off a farmer’s outstanding debt to the bank on their behalf. The Punyashlok Ahilyadevi holkar 105 133 165 81 Israel hIts BeIrut areas Page 16 scheme,approvedbythecabinet on June 2, earmarks Rs 36,585 crore for the purpose, though the actual burden on the exchequerisexpectedtobelower. significantly, the cabinet note records that the Planning department, which vets the financialimplicationsofgovernmentschemes,flaggedtheproposal as imposing a significant financial burden on the state. The note also states that, based on information received from various banks, approximately Rs 36,585 crore would be required to provide benefits under the scheme, but that the actual financial requirement may be lower because certain »COnTinUED On pagE 2 beleAgueRedTRinAMool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata banerjee landed in delhi on sunday with the avowed objective of resurrecting the indiA bloc—whichshewasoncecriticalofandmaintainedadistance from — amid indications that a section of her lok sabha and Rajya sabha MPs are getting readytochartaseparatecourse. TMC sources said efforts wereontoreplicatetheKolkata model of MlAs breaking away and forming a separate group andelectinganewleaderinthe parliamentary wing of the party. The TMC’s organisational leadership is said to be making a last-ditch attempt to preventasplitintheparliamentary party, but several MPs are incommunicado, it is learnt. “There is a possibility and the process has already started as far as the lok sabha is concerned. What has happened in the West bengal Assembly will be repeated in lok sabha so far as our party is concerned,” »COnTinUED On pagE 2 TMC chief Mamata Banerjee with AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee in New Delhi, Sunday. ANi ‘Two people destroyed the India Bloc alliance: Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal’ sanJay Jha JD(U) worKiNg PresiDeNT Page 13 The four from Ballia: Joining dots between accused in killing of Suvendu aide in Bengal Manish sahu Ballia, June 7 A business installing water pipelines for agricultural fields brought together four men from ballia. Two years later, they would find themselves at the centre of a high-profile criminal investigation. The four are among seven people arrested by the Central Raj Kumar Singh and Gyanendra Singh, two of the four accused from Ballia, UP. A total of seven people have been arrested in the case bureau of investigation in connectionwiththekillingofChandranathRath,acloseassociateof WestbengalbJPleaderandnow CM suvendu Adhikari, in the state’s Madhyamgram city on May6,shortlyafterbJP’sthumpingwinintheAssemblypolls. Themen,whosevillagesare scattered across a radius of roughly 50 kilometres, first »COnTinUED On pagE 2 The PRiCe of a 14.2-kg domestic lPg cylinder was raised by Rs 29 effective sunday, the secondsuchpricerevisionsince the start of the war in West Asia which triggered a supply crisis. TheincreasefollowsaRs60per-cylinder hike on March 7, takingthecumulativehiketoRs 89 per 14.2-kg domestic cylinder. it will now cost Rs 942 in delhi—correspondingchanges in price have been effected in other parts of the country. beneficiariesofthePradhan Mantri ujjwala yojana (PMuy) willcontinuetopayaneffective Rs642percylinderafterreceivingasubsidyofRs300perrefill onthefirstfourrefillsannually, down from 9 refills announced last year. despite the hike, public sector oil marketing companies (oMCs) continue to absorb under-recoveriesofaboutRs700 per 14.2-kg cylinder as the market-linkedpriceofthefuelisover Rs 1,600 per cylinder, the Petro- LPG cylinders being delivered in Nadia, West Bengal, Sunday. PTi E. exPlAined Consumption down India’s LPG consumption stood at about 90,000 tonnes a day before the West Asia war. But with the disruption in flows through the Strait of Hormuz and seasonal dip in demand, LPG consumption has declined to about 72,000 tonnes a day, according to recent estimates. leumMinistrysaidsunday. it also said that the price of domestic lPg in india continues to be lower than in neighbouring countries as the government and the oMCs have been shielding house »COnTinUED On pagE 2 Law student, 28, dies at techno concert in Mumbai’s Worli, police book event firm CEO Opp targets Govt: ‘Why are BJP leaders not protesting now?’ Express news service New Delhi, June 7 The oPPosiTion on sunday targeted the bJP-led Central government over the domestic lPgpricehike,sayingitreflects the failure of its economic policies and asked if bJP leaders would hit the streets in protest like they did during the uPA years. The bJP, meanwhile, defended the increase in price, pointing to global factors. CongresspresidentMallikarjun Kharge said the cost of lPg cylindershadincreasedbyRs89 »COnTinUED On pagE 2 Business as usual By EP UNNY Manish Kumar pathak & purnima sah Mumbai, June 7 A 28-yeAR-old law student from Mahim died and a 25year-old woman from odisha was hospitalised after they fell ill during a techno music concertatMumbai’snsCidomein Worli saturday night, prompting police to register a case againsttwoseniorexecutivesof the event management firm that organised the show. Tardeo Police registered the case against Karan singh (40), Ceo, and Parag narendra uke (42), senior manager, at space TheNSCiDomeinMumbai, wheretheconcertwasheld. gANesh shirseKAr bound, the event management company. both have been questioned. The deceased, Mahim residentRushilgangurde,developed »COnTinUED On pagE 2 Happening today lChina’s Xi Jinping will meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. This will be his first visit to North Korea in nearly seven years as Beijing looks to reassert ties with its ally. l ShoWS RARe CoNTiNUiTy oF hUMAN ACTiviTy LiNKiNG eARLy TooL-MAKiNG TRADiTioNS WiTh LATeR RiTUAL, SyMBoLiC AND SoCiAL LiFe Rock marks, game boards: Wildlife trail leads to prehistoric past in Aravalli sophiya Mathew & abhimanyu hazarika carved or engraved on rock), possible stone game boards, New Delhi, June 7 andstonetools—partofawider archaeological pattern emergfouR MonThs ago, a wildlife ingfromtheAravallibeltwhere, trailthroughtherockyoutcrops researchers say, evidence from of the bhondsi stretch of the multipleprehistoricphasesapAravalli forests in gurgaon led pears to survive within the wildlife enthusiasts same landscape. PAge 1 to a stone surface “A chronological marked with dozens continuity is being of carefully carved found here,” said cup-shaped deAkash gupta, a Phd pressions, geometric grids, and scholar and faculty member at a large foot-shaped engraving. delhi university’s satyawati That spot has since been College who has examined the identifiedasaclusterofancient bhondsi material. “The dispetroglyphs (images or designs covery is significant because it anchor shows a rare continuity of human activity linking early tool-making traditions with laterritual,symbolic,andsocial life across this region.” gupta said scholars such as french archaeologist André leroi-gourhan viewed hand engravings on rock as evidence of a cognitive shift. Placing the latest discovery in context, he saidtheregionhasyieldedsigns rangingfromthelowerPalaeolithic to the Mesolithic period. “handaxes and cleavers point to early stone-tool traditions, while the tools indicate later Middle Palaeolithic activ- (Left) Foot engraving on quartzite rock; an Acheulean bifacial hand axe found close to rock art cliff. CoUrTesy: TeJveer MAvi, shAilesh BAislA AND yATiN verMA ity (300,000 to 50,000 years ago). The cupules (cup-shaped depressions) and rock-art-like markings are more likely to belong to later symbolic or ritual phases, especially the Mesolithic, when prehistoric communitiesareknowntohaveleft behind paintings, burial practices and other markers of social life,” he said. officials said excavation teams from the Chandigarh Circle of the Archaeological survey of india (Asi) and the haryana Archaeology department have been documenting the site, including the petro- glyphs and other remains, and have submitted a report. Kamei Athoilu Kabui, superintending Archaeologist with Asi’s Chandigarh Circle, said, “The site needs to be protected from the land mafia and furtherstepsinthisregardneed to be taken by the state government department.” she said the Asi's local exploration team, working with localvillagers,hadfoundinsitu petroglyphs and stone tools. Anil Tiwari, deputy superintending Archaeologist, Asi Chandigarh, said: “A brief report was prepared but there is still a lot of scope for further work and research.” Accordingtoshalaishbaisla, a Phd scholar and researcher at theschoolofheritageResearch and Management, dr b R Ambedkar university delhi, the bhondsi documentation began after wildlife photographers yatin Verma and Ramkumar shared images of the cupmarked rocks they had come across in the forest in february. Verma said, “during a birdwatchingtripwithmyteam,we heard a leopard calling from a cliff above us. The cliff is a »COnTinUED On pagE 2 Mumbai