The Editorial Page: For lasting peace, US & Iran have to look beyond their philosophies of negotiation 8 ThURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2026 Journalism of Courage ahMEdaBad, 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 happening today lPresident drouPadi Murmu begins her five-day visit to Madhya Pradesh during which she will participate in various programmes, offer prayers in Omkareshwar and visit Kuno National Park. lall PreParations are in place for election to two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand for which three candidates — JMM’s Baidyanath Ram, Congress’s Pranav Jha and BJP-backed Independent nominee Parimal Nathwani — are in the fray. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual By EP UNNY Hold talKs on G7 suMMit sidelines, First MeetinG in oVer a Year Trade to sailor safety, Modi and Trump look to turn a new page Ties never as close, says US President; PM commends his efforts to end West Asia crisis shubhajit roy New Delhi, June 17 iN thEiR first meeting in over ayearfollowingthestraininbilateralties,primeMinisterNarendra Modi and US president donald trump Wednesday walked the tightrope, projecting a positive path ahead with a trade deal soon, a strategic commitment to security, and remarks that rekindled hopes of skilled indian professionals. the meeting, on the sidelinesoftheg7summitatEvianles-Bains in eastern France, lasted 55 minutes, according to sources. Following the talks, Modi said, “pleased to meet president trump in Evian. We reviewed the sustained progress »Continued on PaGe 2 HCtoheartoday telegramplea The world paGe 15 overblocking key points of order;shocking draft text on u.s.-iran deal material:Govt sohini Ghosh New Delhi, June 17 A dAy afteritwasblockedtemporarily by the Centre ahead of the NEEt-Ug 2026 re-examinationonJune21,messagingapplication telegram challenged the government move before the delhi high Court Wednesday and said it had received another order warning of action over “non-compliance” with the directive. the bench of Justice tejas Karia, which issued notice to the Centre with the liberty to file a reply and supporting documents, will hear the matter thursday. in its petition, telegram sought quashing of the blocking order and, for the interim, a stay. it has been blocked until June 22. the Centre, represented by Solicitor general tushar Mehta, told the bench there was “shocking material” on the platform. “We shudder to imagine a situation where there is public unrest,” he said. Accusing telegram of not disclosing certain material before the high Court, Mehta sought time until thursday to file a response and bring additional material on record. “there is a host of material which i would like the court to see,” he said. Justice Karia inquired if »Continued on PaGe 2 relatedreport,paGe10 pm narendra modi and Us president donald Trump hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of G7 summit in evian, France, Wednesday. aNI Global South shouldn’t be left to bear war burden, needs financial backing: PM to G7 economy Asks leaders to consider economic E. corridor, skilled mobility partnership shubhajit roy New Delhi, June 17 UNdERliNiNg thAt disruptions in fuel, fertiliser and food supply chains caused by the war in West Asia will impact the global South for “a considerable period”, prime Min- ister Narendra Modi Wednesday told g7 leaders, including US president donald trump, that the “most vulnerable countries” should not be left to bear the burden of these crises alone, and global financial organisations should develop support systems for af- uk-india trade pact to come into force from July 15 paGe 16 fected nations. thewarinWestAsiahasadversely impacted the economy of india and other developing countries in Asia, Africa and latin America as supply of »Continued on PaGe 2 explained Bridging the divide India has taken the lead in articulating the concerns of the Global South comprising the developing, emerging and least developed nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, more so during its G20 Presidency in 2023. QS rankings: IIT-Delhi Parade and punish: Bengal police tops India list for 2nd yr, ignore due process, force TMC climbs to 118 globally accused into walk of ‘shame’ lTop10incounTry national rank 2027 Global rank 2026 Global rank 118 institute 123 IIt delhi 134 129 IIt Bombay 170 180 IIt Madras 205 215 IIt Kharagpur 221 222 IIt Kanpur 221 219 IISc Bangalore 1 2 3 4 5 5 7 8 9 322 328 delhi University 335 339 IIt Roorkee 349 334 IIt guwahati 10 452 503 Shoolini University* *BIOtEChNOlOgy aNd MaNagEMENt SCIENCES Vidheesha Kuntamalla New Delhi, June 17 FoR thE second consecutive year, iit-delhi ranked highest among indian institutions in the QS World University Rankings 2027, climbing five places to 118th globally — the highest ever for an indian institution, firstachievedbyiit-Bombayin the 2025 rankings. iit-Bombay, which topped the country’s list in the past, dropped from 129 to 134. lastyear, too, it had dropped 11 ranks. globally, Massachusetts institute of technology (Mit) topped the list for the 15th year, followedbyStanfordUniversity, imperial College, University of oxfordandharvardUniversity. the indian institutes of technology (iits) continue to dominate the country’s top 10 list. Besides iit-delhi and iitBombay, iit-Madras (ranked 170, up from 180 last year) is the only other indian institution in the top 200 globally. »Continued on PaGe 2 Uddhav Sena issues whip as six of nine MPs decide to switch sides & meet Speaker Raut alleges horsetrading, claims MPs being bought, warns of legal action Vikas Pathak, deeptiman tiwary & Vallabh ozarkar New Delhi, Mumbai, June 17 AS Six of its nine lok Sabha Mps prepared to break away and possibly defect to the rival Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, theUddhavthackeray-ledShiv Sena (UBt) issued a whip, directing all its Mps to attend its parliamentarypartymeetingin New delhi thursday. “We have issued a whip and convened our parliamentary party meeting. We have also written to lok Sabha Speaker om Birla. Buying and breaking elected representatives is against democracy and the Constitution. A legal battle will follow,”Sena(UBt)RajyaSabha Mp Sanjay Raut told reporters. l loksabhaspeaker invitesabhishekfor meetingtomorrow With lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla yet to take a decision on the status of the tMC in the house, the Speaker’s office Wednesday wrote to party MP abhishek Banerjee, inviting him to present his case on the issue Friday. On tuesday, abhishek was called for a meeting with Birla, but the latter could not be present as he was being questioned by the Ed in connection with the school job scam probe. p 13 According to sources, the rebelgroupwaswaitingtosecure »Continued on PaGe 2 Police claim they are ‘reconstructing the crime scene’; TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee says will move court sweety Kumari Kolkata, June 17 SiNCEhiSarrestninedaysago, trinamool Congress (tMC) leader Jahangir Khan has been paraded by police three times throughhisstrongholdofFalta. incensed, his supporters, allegedly led by his wife, have carried out protests, including an attempt to storm a police station reportedly to free the strongman. As the turning of the tide in Bengal is also reflected on its streets,severaltMCleaders,includinglocalheavyweightsand musclemen, and their associates have been trotted in public throughtheirareasofinfluence by police or paramilitary forces — many in just their underclothes,andwearinghandcuffs or a rope around their waist as a sort of leash. Viral videos of the parading include the arrested leadersholdingtheirears,doing squatsandpubliclyapologising. rescue operations underway at the accident site near kotambi stadium on Wednesday. ExPRESS (From left) Tmc leader Jahangir khan; shahin molla, who is linked to a former Tmc minister, has been accused of extortion; and akash singh, who is said to be close to a Tmc mLa, being paraded. ExPRESS After one such public parading, a vacation bench of the Calcutta high Court pulled up the state BJp government, seeking a report on the rules and circumstances behind the incidents. individuals could be arrested and prosecuted, but notdeliberatelydefamedorhumiliated, the court said. police defend their actions as purely “investigative”, meant for “reconstruction of crime scenes”. off-record, offi- cialssaytheyalsowanttobreak theauraofinvincibilityaround some of the accused. A senior ipS officer warned that police were treading a thin line. “Except in some cases where charges are very serious like terrorism, or there is a threat that an accused may abscond, even handcuffing is not done. As for tying a rope around the waist and parading an accused, it has no basis in »Continued on PaGe 2 Ahmedabad Eight killed, 30 injured in Vadodara accident as bus hits stationary truck aditi raja Vadodara, June 17 Eight pEoplE, including a nine-year-oldchild,werekilled and around 30 others injured when a luxury bus travelling from Rajasthan to gujarat crashed into a stationary truck near Kotambi international CricketStadiuminVadodaraat around 4 am on Wednesday. the bus, operated by Balaji travels, was carrying passengers from Banswara in Rajasthan to Surat in gujarat. the impact was severe enough to trap several passengers inside themangledvehicle,triggering »Continued on PaGe 2