The Ideas Page: Indian industry is at a crossroads. It needs to look at longer horizons 9 SAtURdAy, JUNE 13, 2026 JOurnalisM of COurage jaIPur, laTe cITy, 20 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 Postal Regn. no. JaiPuR City/001/2024-26 moVinG to end West asia Crisis uS and iran signal deal near, differ on its terms Rebuffed Iranian drone attack on Indian ships leaving Hormuz, unacceptable, says US President Parisa hafezi, steve holland & John irish Dubai, Washington, Paris, June 12 THE uNITEd States and Iran Friday appeared to have sharply different understandings of the contents of an emerging pact to end their war, though both sides signalled that an agreement was close. Pakistan, which has for weeks sought to broker a deal, saidafinaltextofapeaceagreement between the united States and Iran had been reached,althoughtherewasno immediate confirmation from Washington or Tehran. “Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalise the next steps,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a post on X. E. ExplainEd N-plan, sanctions key As the US and Iran look to sign a deal to end their military conflict, the stumbling block appears to be the division over the specific terms regarding the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear programme and sanctions relief. There remain gaps between what Washington says Iranians have agreed to do and what Tehran insists it has the right to retain. Leaked terms of the proposed memorandum of understanding outlined by Western, Pakistani and Iranian sources »ContinUed on PaGe 2 3 attaCKs in 4 daYs near oman Jaspal Rana, always aiming for the perfect shot, dies at 49 At crash site, families and friends sift the wife and children of one of the victims at the air india crash site in ahmedabad, Friday. BHuPendra rana for memories and a life that once was Leena misra, Brendan dabhi & Parimal a dabhi FiongalGreenlaw-Meek,39,and his partner Jamie, 45, were reAhmedabad, June 12 turningtoLondonaftercelebrating their wedding anniversary SITA PATNI and Amanda don- in India. They were among the aghey sat beside each other at 241 who died when Air India’s the foot of the Ahmedabad-Gatburnt shells of the air india Crash wick Boeing 787 medical college dreamliner hostelbuildingson crashed shortly Friday, grieving for after take-off on their sons. June 12 last year. donaghey,aBritishnational, Sita Patni’s 13-year-old son, held a collage of her son’s pho- Aakash, had been sleeping on tographsthatread“Memoriesof the pavement next to the famFiongal”, as she accepted con- ily’s tea stall when the plane dolences with folded hands. crashed nearby, into the hostel a year later nation Page 9 wait for aNSwerS coNtiNueS aS aaiB SayS ProBe Still oN mess of BJ Medical College. Fiery debris from the crash fell onAakash,whowasamongthe 19 killed on the ground. Patni’s arm still bears the burns she sustained while trying to save her son. Behind the grieving mother on Friday were photographs of Aakash, with visitors coming to pay their respects. A large poster announced a bhajan event on Friday evening in the New Lakshminagar flats, where the family lives, barely 50 metres from the crash site. Family members and loved ones of several victims of the tragedy gathered on Friday at the crash site in the Meghaninagar area of Ahmedabad to India summons top US diplomat second time to protest strikes on ships Poll petition is remedy: SC dismisses Happening today shubhajit roy Natarajan plea over RS paper rejection New Delhi, June 12 FOR THE second time in less than 48 hours, India Friday summoned the uS charge d’affaires (CdA) and lodged a “strong protest” over the series of attacks by uS naval forces on commercial vessels carrying Indian mariners in the Gulf of Oman. On Thursday, the government confirmed the death of threeIndianseafarers,reported missing a day earlier from MT Settebello after it was attacked —ofthe24Indiansonboard,21 were rescued. Also Thursday, uSforcesfiredHellfiremissiles The Big PicTure ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, June 12 us charge d’affaires Jason Meeks at the Mea, Friday. anI intotheengineroomofMTJalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker, near the Oman coast. »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Business as usual By EP UNNy THE SuPREME Court Friday dismissedCongressleaderMeenakshi Natarajan’s challenge to the rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh,andgrantedhertheliberty to file an election petition. Natarajan’s nomination papers were rejected on June 9 by the Rajya Sabha election returningofficerwho,afterreceiving a complaint from the BJP, Has submitted apology, disciplinary action under consideration: Hospital Mumbai, June 12 Page 6 ruled that she submitted an incomplete affidavit in Form 26 and “concealed material facts” lPrime minister narendra Modi will begin a high-profile official visit to France. He will also be attending the G7 meeting there next week. »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Pranit More show: KEM probe finds student’s remarks short of standards Purnima sah & mohamed thaver Khan Sir’s rise, his reckoning Meenakshi natarajan was the party’s Rs candidate from MP relating to a case registered against her in Telangana. On Thursday, all three BJP candidatesweredeclaredelectedunopposedfromMadhyaPradesh. Statingitwasnotinclinedto entertain Natarajan’s plea, the bench of Justices P K Mishra and A S Chandurkar cited the lawlaiddowninthe1952judgementinNPPonnuswamivsReturning Officer, that the appropriate remedy in election matterswasanelectionpetition. »ContinUed on PaGe 2 AdAyafterMaharashtraCyber PoliceregisteredanFIRagainst stand-up comedian Pranit More and two audience members,includingMBBSstudent Sejal Pawar, over remarks made during a show, a prelim- inary inquiry by Mumbai’s KEM Hospital found that Pawar’s comments were “objectionable and insensitive” and fell short of the standards of dignity, empathy and professional responsibility expected from a medical student. KEM Hospital authorities said Pawar had submitted a written apology acknowledg- ingthatsomeofherstatements were inappropriate and may have caused distress. Officials saiddisciplinaryaction,including temporary suspension, couldbeconsidereddepending on the inquiry's findings, though transferring a student toanotherinstitutionisnotpermissible under National Medical Commission norms. The hospital authorities have also called Pawar’s parentstotheinstituteonSaturday tocounselherintheirpresence. »ContinUed on PaGe 2 l Met with neaR-Fatal aCCiDent in hiMaChal Mountains Mountains, ministries, military aircraft: Op to save Deadpool cinematographer after paragliding crash hina rohtaki verine. Fewer still knew that just a day before a near-fatal paragliding accident in the WHEN dOCTORS at PGIMER, high Himalayas, he had been a Chandigarh, examined a for- guestatthePatialaresidenceof eignnationalwithseverespinal former Punjab chief minister injuries on June 9, he was reg- Captain Amarinder Singh. istered simply as an “unknown What began as the rescue of patient”. the unidentified forpagE 1 Few at the hospieign tourist injured tal knew that the in a remote mounman lying on the tainous region near stretcher was George Rich- Manali soon evolved into a mond, an acclaimed British multi-agency operation involcinematographer whose ving the Himachal Pradesh credits include the Hollywood government, district adminisblockbusterdeadpoolandWol- trations, the Indian Air Force, Chandigarh, June 12 anchor george Richmond went down near Deo tibba; an iaF helicopter was used to evacuate him seniorpoliticalleadersanddoctors across two states. Richmond, 54, had arrived inIndiaaspartofasix-member foreign expedition group. According to former MP Preneet Kaur, Richmond was known to her son, Raninder Singh, throughcollegefriendsabroad, and stayed with the family in PatialabeforeleavingforHimachal Pradesh on June 3. “Mysonknewthemfromhis college days. He stayed with us foranightbeforeheadingtoHimachal the next morning. A commonfriendhadbroughtthe group,andtheyhadaguidewith them. After they left, we had no idea what had happened until we learnt about the accident. It is very unfortunate,” Kaur said. After reaching Himachal Pradesh, Richmond and his »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Jaipur indian shooting legend Jaspal Rana guided Manu Bhaker to her historic double bronze at the Paris olympics. PTI mihir Vasavda Mumbai, June 12 ONE OF the things shooter Jaspal Rana loved explaining about his complex sport was thetriggerpull.Hewouldshow videos of his most famous ward, Manu Bhaker, and then painstakingly explain the almost invisible movements that produce the perfect shot. To most,itwouldsoundvaguebut for Rana, it was everything. He couldadmirea“beautifulshot”, he often said, even if it missed the bullseye. It was a quirk that said a lot about him. For all his reputation as a straight-talker and fighter, Rana was fundamentally a shooting obsessive. A nerd who dedicated his life — first as an athlete, then as a coach — chasing perfection in a sport where success is measured in millimetres. Rana died on Friday at age 49. He was travelling as a coach with the Indian team at the shootingWorldCupinMunich, »ContinUed on PaGe 2